Jane Page Edmondson Wasson

Jane Wasson led a terpsichorean life. In 1926 she made her dance debut into the family home in Elizabeth, NJ, the daughter of Ralph Edmondson and Katherine (Bryan) and the middle sister between Bryan and John.

She never met a sport she didn’t like. She played football, baseball and hockey with the neighborhood boys, tennis with her father and brothers. Jane fell in love with modern dance at Battin High School, encountered Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, danced at Sarah Lawrence College and continued a lifelong love affair with movement, choreography and improvisation. Until the last day of her long life, she had a mirror and ballet barre in her bedroom.

Jane came from an abundance of family love, warmth and attention; a home filled with books; and a willingness to discuss anything around the dinner table, be it politics, issues of the day, Ancient Greece, Planned Parenthood or how to build bridges. She was strongly influenced by her aunts and uncles who loved to come out from NYC to visit Jane and her brothers.

Jane met Ed Wasson at a college mixer. They married in 1949 and honeymooned in Aspen where they both learned to ski. She danced down the slopes of Winter Park and Vail sharing her passion for outdoor exercise with her children and friends for the next 50 years.

Jane’s other passions were social justice and community activism. She fought for the underdog her entire life and leaves a rich legacy in the Denver area that includes working in Governor Lamm’s office as a citizen advocate and working with the League of Women Voters where she helped organize the Women to Watch program. For ten years she was Board Chairman of Speaking of Dance, a community building dance program that helped underserved girls connect to movement, each other and their futures. In her 90s, when she slowed down a touch, her role shifted to networker and facilitator, leaning on 50 years of building community connections. In this role, Jane produced Rebels Remembered, a series of videos documenting the civil rights movement in Colorado, as well as Dreamers, a documentary on Denver area DACAs.

Jane’s mottos were to keep moving, honor the political and social justice values instilled by her parents, eat a green salad every day, be silly, read books and give time and attention to friends and their families.

She was most proud of her extended loving family. She had the remarkable ability of making the person she was speaking to feel as if they were the most special person ever. She encouraged and supported all her children. She wanted to know what they were reading. She worried about them when they took off on wild adventures around the world where there were no phones or email. Thin, blue aerograms took months to arrive. She always slept better when they returned to the country. They remember her style as a combination of traditional and contemporary with a proper way to set the table. The Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary occupied a rolling table for ease of access during dinner discussions. Jane instigated touch football games, croquet and playing tennis, not to win but for a long rally. She was funny to a fault and wanted to like the music her children liked but she had trouble understanding the lyrics. Once she mistook the lyric in Love Potion No.9, “when I kissed a cop down at 34th and Vine” for “when I kissed a cow at the bottom of a mine”. She was the best Mom.

Jane leaves her four children John, Kate, Page, Maria; four grandchildren Kaki, Nicholas, Christina, Luna; three great-grandchildren Eva, Aidan, Preston along with two nieces, a nephew and many cousins. Jane’s husband of seventy-five years, Ed, died in February 2024.

On Thanksgiving, with typical elegant grace, Jane quietly exited the dance studio leaving us all touched by her life

A celebration of life service for both Ed and Jane Wasson will be held at the First Unitarian Society of Denver on January 25, 2025 at 1pm.

Donations in memory of Jane Wasson may be made to: League of Women Voters of Denver 1980 Dahlia St., Denver, CO 80220
www.lwvdenver.org