A life of adventure

Jane McRae’s zest for life not only spanned more than nine decades, it also spanned the world.

Whether hiking in Nepal, horseback riding in Scotland, touring Russia, or doing some aerial sightseeing while piloting a plane, McRae welcomed the challenges of the unknown. McRae died on Nov. 23, 2015, but her legacy lives on in the quiet calmness of the world of libraries where she found her career calling. For 16 years, McRae worked for the Vestavia Hills School System where she headed the libraries of Pizitz Middle and Vestavia Hills High School.

Dedication to education is part of McRae’s family history. Her grandfather, Dr. Robert Greene Hewitt, founded Trussville Academy, which would evolve into Hewitt-Trussville High School.  Born Oct. 26, 1920, McRae was a graduate of Ramsay High School and went on to attend Birmingham-Southern College in 1938 but withdrew after a year due to financial issues.  

According to her daughter Kim, McRae married F. L. “Mac” McRae in 1942. When he and his brother left to serve in World War II, Jane McRae decided to get her pilot license with the hope of flying for the military.

When she found out women weren’t allowed to fly with the Army, McRae headed to Miami to work in air traffic control. Her daughter said she would climb a tower and wave a red and a green paddle to direct the pilots. Kim recalls her mother telling her kids that she had helped fly in cigars and brandy for Winston Churchill.

“She just loved flying and the adventure of sailing through the air,” Kim said.  

The mother of four children, McRae never lost the desire to obtain a degree and in 1966 returned to Birmingham-Southern.  She earned her undergraduate degree at age 46 and, because there was no American Library Association accredited library of science degree offered in Alabama, McRae pursued it at Florida State University. From 1970 to 1986 she served as the librarian at Pizitz Middle School and then Vestavia High School.

Alice Laurendine, who worked as a teacher and principal in the Vestavia Hills school system and served on its school board, knew McRae well, calling her “one of the most intelligent educators and librarians I’ve ever known.”

“Whether it was a student or a teacher, if you needed help and information she could guide you in such a way that it was fun and you didn’t dread it,” she said. “She knew how to help you and loved doing it. Even the students seemed to recognize that she was exceptional.”

  According to Laurendine, McRae always insisted on having a “vibrant” library.

 “They were places where people were talking, helping each other and getting things done,” she said. “Her libraries were inviting places as they should be. She definitely wasn’t the fuddy-duddy librarian like some can be.”

 Her 1986 retirement served to give McRae more opportunity to satisfy her adventurous spirit, and she immediately signed up for three years in the Peace Corps. She traveled to Jamaica, where she helped open libraries in Kingston, St. Ann and Montego Bay.

“She went hiking in Colorado and at the end of the Appalachian Trail and joined an environmental group in the Caribbean to assist with their efforts to save the lobsters,” Kim said. “And at the last of his life, my dad became very ill, but he and my mother went on his dream trip to Europe and traced the paths where he had fought during World War II.”

McRae was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2005, but that did not quell her desire to be active and involved, said Mel York, director of South Highland Center adult day care, where McRae was a client for five years.

“When Jane was here she took part in exercise and art and music therapy and continually socialized with people,” York said. “She had lots of energy, was very active and participated a great deal. She loved being around people, and so many things made her smile.”

Lonny Terry said he was one of the many McRae made smile while a student at Pizitz Middle School.

According to Terry, he had to be dropped off at school early on a regular basis and McRae kept seeing him waiting for the door to be opened.

“One morning she stopped and said, ‘Hey, come with me,’” said Terry of the time he first met McRae at the age of 13. “She asked me to help her straighten the books and the shelves, and that was the day she introduced me to the library.”

Terry said he soon started working with the projectors — changing the bulbs and delivering them to the appropriate classrooms.

“I became one of her volunteers and, after graduating from high school, started working as a page for the Vestavia Public Library while I was studying for my undergraduate degree in history at UAB,” he said. “Then I got my graduate degree in library science at the University of Alabama and was hired as the Vestavia library’s reference librarian.”

Terry, who has been with what is now the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest for 41 years and serves in the cataloging and circulation departments, attributes his career and its success to McRae.

“You loved to talk with her, and she was the type that always had time for you no matter how busy, making sure everything was going right for you,” he said. “She told me all about her job and things she encountered. She loved the library and shared that with me, and that’s what got me started.”