Word was received yesterday, that Jeane Turnell passed away peacefully, at the age of 94. Chances are, you didn’t know Jeane — but she was for more than twenty years, the nice lady who answered the phone when you called Ionian Arts. The music publishing company was founded in 1986 by the Crosiers and composer Peter Hallock. We decided to hire a “Girl Friday” to fill our mail orders and to answer the phone, and Peter Hallock said he knew just the right person.

When we first met Jeane in 1987 and went to her house in Mercer Island, I said to Carl, “I can see that Ionian Arts has taken over THREE households!” since Jeane stored the choral inventory on her patio. The other two households, of course, were our own and that of Peter Hallock, who stored all the Ionian Psalter copies in his basement. That was why Ionian Arts had a post office address in Mercer Island, WA because it was close to Jeane’s home.

Jeane only retired from the company two years ago, in April 2010, and we flew to Seattle to give her a nice farewell luncheon. It was my job to decorate the table. Carl, of course, did all the cooking.

Thank you, Jeane, for all you did to greet and make our customers happy. She told us that she loved every minute of it, and enjoyed talking to churches all over the country.