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Indian Rocks Beach fondly remembers Jane Powell
By HARLAN WEIKLE
Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/082207_bee-04.jpg) |
| Jane Powell |
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INDIAN ROCKS BEACH – Longtime Indian Rocks Beach resident Jane Powell was remembered at a memorial service Aug. 13 at Serenity Gardens Memorial Park. Powell died of congestive heart failure Aug. 9 at Morton Plant Mease Hospital. She was 87.
Born in Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y., Jane Powell at various times in her life worked on Wall Street, pursued a career in the retail credit field and raised three children – a full life for most, but then, as anyone in her adopted hometown of Indian Rocks Beach who knew her will tell you, Jane Powell was not just anyone.
Powell modeled for a time with the Walter Thornton Agency appearing in a 1941 photo in publishing magnate Bernard Macfadden’s “True Story Magazine” illustrating an article titled “Seeds of Divorce.” The Thornton Agency’s claim to fame was the discovery of such screen luminaries as Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward, Dorothy McGuire, Lizabeth Scott and Arlene Dahl.
Growing up in the years immediately following World War I Powell, like many young New Yorkers, lived in a city just beginning to awaken to an era of renewed prosperity, with a sense of emerging internationalism, cultural diversity and universal women’s suffrage. New York in the late ’20s and ’30s was a heady place to live.
According to her family, Powell enjoyed dressing up in costume all her life. She appeared in the 1936 movie feature “Gags and Gals.” The short film may be viewed online at the Prelinger Film Archives, www.archive.org/details/gags_and_gals.
Along with her first husband, photo finisher Paul Meyer, Powell had three children: Carole Meyer of North Carolina; Chris of Largo, and Paul of Seminole, as well as three grandchildren: Wade Meyer of New York; Devin Marsh of Miami and Dina Marsh of Largo.
By the late ’60s Powell had moved to Miami and in 1977 she moved to Indian Rocks Beach.
“The best move I ever made,” Powell would later claim.
Powell quickly became active in several community groups including the civic and homeowners associations and parks and recreation. She worked in the credit department at Morton Plant and volunteered at Indian Rocks Baptist Church. She also volunteered at the Beach Art Center and found time to participate in Action 2000. She was a member of VFW Post #10094.
In 1984 she married her late husband, Jim Powell, and in 1985 at the age of 66 Jane became a certified clown with International Clowns of America. She reveled in her community’s sense of spirit by acting as Grand Marshall in the 2002 IRB Christmas Parade dressed as the Faerie God Mother, a part she relished.
“Of her time, talent, ideas and friendship, whatever recognition she received as a result … it was not enough for a woman who was universally liked and devoted so much of her time to the city, her friends and neighbors,” said IRB Mayor Bill Ockunzzi.
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Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007
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