Obituary: Jane Katherine Arthur

The Sacramento Bee published a fine obituary this morning for Jane Katherine Arthur. I'm trying to get permission from the Bee to publish the obituary in full, but in the meantime, here is a portion:

Obituary: Jane Arthur, 58, reveled in the unconventional
By Robert D. Dávila -- Bee Staff Writer

Jane Katherine Arthur followed her bliss at age 20, shedding the comforts of a genteel upbringing in Virginia to wear flowers in her hair on the streets of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district during the Summer of Love in 1967.

She embarked on an unconventional path that led her to seek enlightenment at an ashram, travel with musical bands and read palms to support her three young children. Along the way she married and divorced five husbands, became a lawyer and served in the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.

A lively, stubborn woman who spoke her mind, she enthralled friends with tales of meeting the Beatles as a teenager and hanging out with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco. She was a force of nature and devout Buddhist who faced breast cancer by learning and teaching yoga to others coping with illness.

Composing her own epitaph, Ms. Arthur wrote that she "lived and loved passionately, completely and without regrets." She died March 4 of cancer in Sacramento. She was 58.

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Jane Katherine Arthur
Born: July 17, 1947
Died: March 4, 2006

...Survived by: Daughters Kashi Francis Albertsen and Persia Ramana Nelson-Crates, both of Sacramento; son Alexander Garth Samans of Grass Valley; two grandchildren

Memorial services: 2 p.m. Sunday at the SGI-USA Buddhist Community Center, 1812 Tribute Road, Sacramento
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