Jane Ann was a Tomboy, and according to her, she has the scars to prove it!  Jane Ann proudly boasts that until the seventh grade she could beat any boy at running and loved doing it.  Yet she was painfully shy by her own admission.  Nevertheless, Jane Ann began singing in public in church school as early as age six.  The song she chose for her debut:  There's a Gold Mine in the Sky.  Jane Ann sang in a country-western show while in high school, but she admits her stage fright was overwhelming.  It was not until " . . . I was about eighteen that I could walk on stage without my knees threatening to give way."   Jane Ann's sister Aimee, five years her senior, had a beautiful alto voice, and the two eventually performed together throughout their native  Westmoreland County.  They had lots of time to practice their art while they washed dishes every night - at least after arguing about whose turn it was to wash and whose turn it was to dry! 

          Jane Ann's mother Amy Ruth Fisher was her best friend, her best teacher and her best critic.  She instilled in her daughter a love of music and a lifelong reverence for the magic of the written word.  She taught Jane Ann graciousness and compassion by her own example.  She was a gentlewoman.  Everyone loved Amy Ruth Fisher, Jane Ann most of all. 

           Jane Ann began voice lessons at age twelve.  Amy Ruth saved quarters in a jar to pay for them.  Her teacher was an elderly lady in Pittsburgh, Anne Griffiths, who, according to Jane Ann, " . . . scared me to death.  Hence, she was always in total despair of me.  I did not do well at all."  But Jane Ann did love school and did very well there.  Although she enjoyed popularity, she always felt out of place and just a bit inferior to her peers. 

            Jane Ann began composing poetry and children's stories as soon as she could write.  When she finished something, she would rush to her mother for her approval.  Amy Ruth would just beam!  It was entirely natural for Jane Ann to become a writer, because she came from a family of story tellers.  She fondly recalls her Uncle Tommy relating tales, his hands continually drawing pictures in the air to help illustrate the story.  His eyes would be shining, and if he paused for a breath, her Uncle George would take over.  Jane Ann's maternal grandparents were English, so as stories unfolded, there would be a smattering of Cockney and then an almost imperceptible crossover into a polished broad "a."      

             Family gatherings always meant food and music.  Gatherings inevitably ended around an old upright piano, with her old Uncle Sammy playing and singing and young Uncle Sammy right behind him with his hand on his shoulder.  The rest of the family could not help but join in a chorus of voices. 

             Her academic success in high school led Jane Ann to a full scholarship which she chose to apply to Seton Hill College, a fine arts college run by the Sisters of Charity in nearby Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  Although a Protestant, Jane Ann received wonderful treatment by the Sisters.  However, once again Jane Ann felt insecure and out of place, because her rural high school background had not prepared her to compete successfully with her classmates at Seton Hill, most of whom were products of private schools.  The Sisters did everything to keep Jane Ann with them, even at one point employing her father as grounds keeper and maintenance man at the institution.  Still, submerged in such an environment, Jane Ann's insecurities were raging, and she left after her second year.  A very few short years later, however, those same Sisters would gather around a television set to watch their Jane Ann, as she hosted her own program on television in nearby Pittsburgh.  That pleased Jane Ann, who could not help but feel that she had in some way let down the wonderful people at Seton Hill who had helped and encouraged her so much along the way. 

              Jane Ann's success in the world of television and later in musical theatre can be followed simply by referencing her Credits and Reviews pages.  That career, however, was interrupted from time to time by marriage to an U.S. Air Force doctor, various moves around the world typical of a family with military ties, and the births of her four children.  Those children are all now grown and pursuing their own successful careers.  One is in computer technology, one in the field of medicine, another in government service, and one who teaches, choreographs and performs Authentic Movement dance.  Jane Ann has six grandchildren who now enjoy not only her own original lighthearted tales and whimsy, but also the fruits of a lifetime dedicated to the education and entertainment of children.