Jane Dreyer

Jane Frances Dreyer was a remarkable woman who enjoyed a full and long life. Born on June 13, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri to Frances A. and Henry A. (“Harry”) Grundig, she was an only child, yet she was surrounded by the love of her parents and a score of caring aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Thus, family and friends became a focal and important part of Jane’s life early on. Happily involved in her studies, along with participating in choirs, school plays, musicals and operettas, she attended St. Cecilia’s Catholic School, then St. John’s High School, both in St. Louis Missouri, graduating in 1944. Shortly thereafter Jane met the love of her life, US Air Corps Corporal, Roy Warren Dreyer. They were married on December 28, 1946. Both shared many common interests, including travel, the arts, and the love of all things railroad, in particular the allure of powerful steam engine locomotives. They enjoyed model railroading as well, custom building and finishing narrow gauge engines and rail cars. In 1955, as members of the national Rail Road Enthusiasts club, they were thrilled to be a part of an overseas group trip to the British Isles, where they explored and toured the countryside by rail. Other memorable trips included several automobile journeys, from the everglades in Florida, throughout the U.S. and to Mexico. Jane worked for several companies, including Pet Milk and the New York Times. Then, Jane and Roy were blessed with two daughters: Lauren, while residing in New Jersey, and four years later after moving to California, Valerie was born. Many happy times were had, including regular trips to various amusement parks, museums, local sunny beaches, and the mountains. Jane became a dedicated Girl Scout Leader, with both daughters a part of her happy troops while they were in grade school. She also volunteered her time in the local schools as a teacher’s aide. Jane inherited her father’s musical genes, and learned to play classical guitar. She then taught her young daughters the instrument, and even provided guitar lessons to others in her home. Mother and daughters would spend many a fun evening having “hootenannies”, each playing a guitar, singing folk songs with joy and much laughter. Jane also sang with her daughters in the Holy Family Catholic Church (now Cathedral) Choir in Orange and did so with dedication for many years. From an early age, Jane was a talented writer, artist and wordsmith and this continued throughout her life. Her writings, stories and poems reflect beauty, nature, questions, wisdom, humanity, pain, joy and humor. Her paintings and drawings, from childhood forward, displayed great talent and emotion. In addition, she was also quite a craftswoman, adept at knitting, sewing, crocheting, embroidery, and counted cross stitch. Her love of the arts, history and the humanities was strong, and with a continued desire to learn, Jane went back to school, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Art/Art History from Cal State Long Beach University in 1979. With the degree, and her love of people, cultures, art and literature, she worked at Pickwick Booksellers in the Mall of Orange, the job a perfect fit, and one she greatly enjoyed. In addition to studying the history of other people and lands, Jane felt it very important to respect and understand the roots of her own heritage. Using no computers, but only through her own research and hard work corresponding to various churches in the U.S. and Europe, she was able to trace the maternal and paternal genealogy of both her own, as well as her husband’s, family lines as far back the mid 1600’s. Jane was loving, gentle, friendly, good natured, positive, patient, forgiving, a great conversationalist, and above all, she dearly loved her friends and family. She stoically battled Lymphoma and Leukemia, enduring treatment twice, both in her senior years, yet she never complained, nor did her courage falter. A woman of exceptional faith, she went to be with the Lord on December 26, 2015. Jane was preceded in death by her devoted husband Roy, and is survived by her loving daughters, Valerie Goetz and Lauren Brown, and sons-in-law, John and Phil.