When Sunday morning rolled around, whether they were at home or on the road, always high on the priority list for Jane and Bob Fraser was to obtain the New York Times, from which Jane would swiftly lay claim to the Sunday crossword puzzle, the week's most challenging. Endowed with a broad knowledge and a well-rounded lifetime of experience, Jane would set about to tame the puzzle's language nuances and punning turns of phrase. She dazzled with her breadth of intuition as she put together the page's downs and acrosses. It followed quite naturally that when the summer's Fraser Frolic took place and the family gathered for the reliably competitive game of Trivial Pursuit, the ladies' team depended on Jane as a cornerstone.\r\nJane Fraser put together a good life for herself, a life by no means short on accomplishments, but highlighted by personal qualities that will be greatly missed but remembered and deeply cherished by her husband of nearly 53 years, Bob Fraser, their three children, Anne, Amy, and Paul, their spouses, Jane and Bob's seven grandchildren, the extended family and her many friends. Jane's life featured few downs, plenty of acrosses (18 transatlantic voyages on ocean liners with Bob beginning in 1958 aboard the Empress of Britain) and a lot of ups, as she anchored a very supportive family and took great interest and joy in the milestones-large and small-in the lives of people around her.\r\nMary (Jane) Coyne Fraser, aged 79, passed away peacefully at home on Wednesday, July 21, following a cancer diagnosis just over a year ago.\r\nJane was born on August 3, 1930 at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York to Bill and Mary Coyne. She lived her early years on a dairy farm in Avon, New York, a farm which her brothers Dick and Jerry and their children continue to own and run. Following high school in Avon, she attended Buffalo State Teachers College (NY), graduating in 1953. Jane went on to teach middle and high school home economics in Port Jervis, NY for several years.\r\nMemorable travel adventures followed with a mid-1950's road trip together with a fellow teacher that covered thousands of miles of the American West in Jane's blue Ford, which had a strong tendency to overheat. A year later it was off to Europe by plane with three girlfriends and a whole lot of who-knows-what while exploring Ireland, Great Britain, and the Continent. Not long after their return, one of these girlfriends introduced Bob and Jane. \r\nThey married in 1957, the start of a long and devoted bond which took them together to the places associated with Bob's career as a history Ph.D. and professor-to Glasgow where Anne was born, then to Ithaca, New York and Amy's birth, to London, then to Williamstown, Massachusetts where Paul was born and where Jane enjoyed being part of the Williams College faculty wives for six years, and finally to Eau Claire in 1967.\r\nJane's sharp wit and sense of humor often zinged but was never overdone. She was in prime form when she told stories about transcribing hundreds of pages of parliamentary voting records for Bob's dissertation on a manual typewriter or traipsing around World War I battlefields on a study tour or visiting one-too-many castles or, perish the thought, Roman ruins of any kind on the seven family trips to Scotland. Above all, she delighted in interacting with people, leveraging her sense of humor, deep curiosity, constant concern about and empathy for others, and an uncanny ability to remember things about people, to great effect with friends and strangers alike. Jane loved books and when she found a good read, she loved to pass it on to a friend or family member whom she suspected would enjoy it too.\r\nAfter the children were grown, Jane worked for many years at Variety Office Products and later at her beloved Thistledown, the source of many a Christmas ornament or other thoughtful gift for family and friends far and wide. Jane recognized her own gift and good fortune at having had such a long and rewarding life, and she expressed this again and again in recent months. She was also thankful for the honest and compassionate care of her oncologist, Dr. Daniel Burns of Luther Midelfort and the hospice nurses of Northwest Wisconsin HomeCare. Jane is survived by her husband, Bob; her brothers, Richard Coyne and Gerald Coyne; sister Peg Settles; children, Anne (Bill) Losby, Amy (Joe) Wagner, and Paul (Nancy) Fraser; and grandchildren, Julia, Leslie, Ben, Megan, Sam, Will, and Catherine.\r\nShe is preceded in death by her father and mother; and her brother William (Bill) Coyne.\r\nVisitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 25, at Lenmark-Gomsrud-Linn Funeral Home, 814 First Avenue, Eau Claire, with a prayer service at 7 p.m.\r\nMemorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, July 26, at St. Bede Monastery, 1190 Priory Road, Eau Claire. Visitation will be held one hour prior to services at the monastery.\r\nMemorials preferred to the Friends of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Book Marks Remembrance, 400 Eau Claire St., Eau Claire, WI 54701-3715.

Service Information