Jane Frances Krakauer

Jane Rieger Krakauer, 89, a native Kansas Citian, died Wednesday, October 1, 2014. Born on September 5, 1925, she was the daughter of Nathan and Dorothy Ludwig Rieger and the granddaughter of Leo and Fannie Metzger Ludwig and Alexander and Mollie Weinberger Rieger. She was the great-granddaughter of Jacob and Mary Rieger and Julius Ludwig.

Jacob and Alexander Rieger were in the wholesale liquor business in Kansas City from 1887 until the 18th amendment (Prohibition) was passed. At the end of the 19th century J. Rieger and Co., at 1529 Genessee, was the largest wholesale mail order whiskey house in the U.S. After Prohibition went into effect, Alexander started the Home Trust Company, which evolved into Mercantile Bank, the leadership of which passed to his son, Jane’s father, Nathan Rieger. Alexander also was the Czechoslovakian Consul for Kansas City. Nathan and Dorothy Rieger were founders of, and active in, a broad range of Kansas City organizations. Julius Ludwig and Leo Ludwig, Sr., were jewelers in St. Louis and Kansas City. Leo Ludwig, Sr., was with Edwards and Sloane, which became Edwards, Ludwig and Fuller Jewelry in Kansas City.

Jane attended Notre Dame De Sion, then E.C. White Elementary School and she relished her fond memories of her time at both schools. She achieved a fine academic record at Westport High School, where she also was voted a beauty queen and served as president of The Pundit Literary Society. She attended Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.

In 1943, at age 18, Jane became buyer for the Women’s Department at Rothschild’s Women’s and Men’s Store at 10th and Main. In June, 1946, she married Kenneth Krakauer, to whom she was married for 55 years, until his death in 2001. Of her husband she said no other man was his equal. For several years, she served as an assistant store manager at Adler’s, the Adler-Krakauer chain of women’s clothing stores. Jane helped start the Planned Parenthood Richard Cabot Clinic. She served on the Kansas City Mental Health Association Board for 20 years. She also served on the Menorah Medical Center Auxiliary Board, having volunteered there for 46 years in many different capacities, beginning as a teenager changing the sheets on patients’ beds and rolling bandages for soldiers during WWII. She was the longest-serving Donations Chairman at the Menorah Auxiliary, having carried out this work with pride, pleasure and exquisite handwriting for decades. Jane spent five years volunteering in Menorah’s Oncology Department. She was a member of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, having been confirmed by the esteemed Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg, and was a member of The New Reform Temple and Oakwood Country Club. She supported many charities in the Kansas City area.

Jane was a voracious reader who operated her own informal private lending library. She relished socializing with her wide circle of friends. She counted among those friends several with whom she remained close from her very early childhood to her death. People of all ages and all walks of life sought her company. She was a genuinely sympathetic listener but also delighted in being devilishly outrageous. Jane was always impeccably coifed, made-up, dressed fashionably, perfumed and accessorized, even alone at home and to her last day at Village Shalom. She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her son, Rex Rieger Krakauer, her nephews, Tom Rieger and Fred Goldman III, her sister Mitzi Rieger Goldman, and her brother James Ludwig Rieger. She leaves her daughter and son-in-law, Randee Krakauer Kelley and Michael Kelley, of Prairie Village, KS, and two beloved grandsons, Eli Jordan Greif and Tyler Randall Greif, both of New York City. The family deeply appreciates the extraordinarily tender care Jane received from the staff at Village Shalom.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to: Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care, 1500 Meadow Lake Parkway, Suite 200, KCMO 64114, or Village Shalom, 5500 West 123rd Street, Overland Park, KS 66209, or the Rex R. Krakauer Fund at Williams College, 880 Main Street Williamstown, MA 01267, or the American Cancer Society, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, KCMO 64105. As Jane would say, now go read a good book!

A memorial service will be held at 2:30pm Sunday, October 5, at The New Reform Temple, 7100 Main, Kansas City, MO., with a gathering for family and friends at its conclusion, also at The New Reform Temple.