Frank Meyer tells us via email: “Mikki and I drove about an hour and a half north of us in New York State yesterday (Sept 10) to the late Jane Barton’s memorial service at her Windy Hill Tree Farm north of Schoharie.
“There was a turnout of more than 100 friends and family, many of the latter having airlifted in from California. It was a particularly warm and often very funny afternoon, with participants speaking of the many facets of Jane’s life.
“She was Variety’s Albany correspondent for many years until she retired in 1990, but her career had spanned radio, being an unpaid legman for Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan, WWII in the Waves, then commissioned as one of the first women officers in the US Navy (she rose to the rank of commander), pubrel, etc.
“A highlight of the service was the reading of a portion of a letter from John Madden in which he limned how she became a stringer, literally over the dead body of the former mugg.
“The view from Windy Hill over the Catskills is amazing and the spirit of Jane and her late companion Edith was very much with us. The ceremony ended with a Naval Reserve honor guard playing taps, lowering and folding the flag and presenting it to her family. She would have been embarrassed, but proud.”