SARASOTA, FL.
Jane Marilyn Haines Foster was born on December 26, 1936 to Delbert and Mildred Haines in Indianapolis, Indiana and passed away peacefully on December 23, 2019 in Sarasota, Florida.
Jane was raised in Greenfield, Indiana and attended Indiana University where she met and married her devoted husband Gilbert Davis Foster.
After relocating to Minnesota, Jane continued her collegiate and graduate studies, primarily at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, ultimately earning master’s and doctoral degrees. Jane was an intellectual with a lifelong interest in parapsychology and religious and spiritual studies. Jane enjoyed an incredibly diverse career, including teaching in the Head Start Program, working in the medical technology field, public school education with a focus on disadvantaged students, social work and hospice care. She was an active volunteer, helping the homeless and tutoring special needs children, working with Catholic Charities caring for at-risk battered women and helping the homeless. Jane also cared for infants (one for three months) as a foster parent. Being an accomplished pianist and music teacher, music played a very important role in Jane’s life. Jane and Gil became members of several churches as they relocated from Indiana to Illinois, then Minnesota, Michigan, back to Minnesota and finally Florida. Jane and Gil were active members of Bent Tree Country Club and immensely enjoyed their lakefront home in the Bent Tree neighborhood. Jane was an avid traveler, visiting over 40 countries, including ladies-only trips with her mother and enjoying innumerable cruises with Gil. Jane, a lovingmother and grandmother, delighted in spending time with her family. She especially loved hosting her grandchildren at her homes in Minnesota and Florida.
Jane is survived by her husband Gil; their three children: Vincent Foster and his wife Louise of Houston, Texas, Jill Foster and her husband Cliff Miller of Sarasota, Florida and Daniel Foster and his wife Elaine of Camas, Washington; their five grandchildren: Allen Foster of Seattle, Washington, Carolyn Foster of Seattle, Washington, Michael Foster of Houston, Texas, Amy Foster of Houston, Texas, and Brittany Foster and her husband Jere Freel of Dallas, Texas. She is also survived by her brother Thomas Haines and his wife Pearlann of Greenfield, Indiana and his three children: Beth Haines Levitt and her husband Martin of Tallahassee, Florida, Brent Haines and his wife Betsy Dykstra of Oak Park, Illinois, and Stephanie Haines of Greenfield, Indiana.
The family plans to have a celebration of Jane’s life in Greenfield, Indiana early next year at a date to be announced.
In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to be made in Jane’s honor to Alzheimer’s and dementia research organizations such as Mayo Clinic’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research efforts or to non-profit hospice care facilities. Memorial gifts in memory of Jane designated for Alzheimer’s disease research at Mayo Clinic can be made online atwww.mayoclinic.org/developmentor mailed to: Department of Development, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN 55905.
