Jane Darrah Gates, 1942-2020
“If there ever comes a day when we cannot be together, keep me in your heart.
I will be there forever.” – A.A. Milne
Molly Mulloy
Dear Friends,
Our fun-loving classmate (and my life-long friend) Jane Darrah Gates died yesterday in Mercer Island, WA afte
r battling MSA (Multiple System Atrophy, kind of like Parkinsons) for two years. We were friends from the age of 3 even though we never went to the same school (Jane at Hyde/Robinson and me at Blessed Sacrament/Mt Carmel) until our junior year at East. Most of my best memories of high school were of parties, road trips to sporting events, and pranks organized by Jane, who was one of the funniest people I ever knew. I’m sure you too have memories of Jane from your school years together. I’m happy that her husband, children, and grandchildren were with her when she peacefully passed away. Sorry to send this sad news. Molly Mulloy (mmulloy@ku.edu)
John Van Slyke
Hi Molly,
I am deeply saddened to learn of Jane’s passing. Jane was one of my all- time favorite people.
I started competitive swimming in the Wichita Swim Club with Jane, Tom, Cindy and Bo back when I was 9 or so. The Darrah family was one of the pillars of the WSC in every way.
For sure, there was no other person like Jane. She got her instructions from some point in outer space — as did all of Bob Timmons’ kids in those days. I cannot recall a day that I was around Jane that she did not make me laugh and feel great.
Those years in high school at East were about as close to American Graffiti as it gets. Jane 
was always out cruising around. I know she is doing that right now.
My memories of those days with Jane, her two brothers and sister, her parents, and all of the people in WSC and at East are among the happiest of my life.
At times of loss like this, I always think of what Winnie the Pooh said to Piglet as they were walking one day: If there ever comes a day when we cannot be together, keep me in your heart. I will live there forever.
Love to all. Be safe.
PS: I have included in the cc of this email my sister Suzie Stambaugh, my brother Tom, Rickey Knowles, and Bob Huff, who now goes by the name Hummux Anax.
After Bob Timmons passed, I created a website for him. The images on this site may bring back a lot of memories. I have additional pics of swimmers and track and cross country to hang up there. The url is www.bobtimmons.net If anyone else has pictures of those magic years in Wichita, please send them to me. John Van Slyke Jr. (jrvsjr@gmail.com)
Glenna Stearman Park Do any of you remember Jane Darrah having her DH Lawrence’s book Lady Chatterley’s Lover to Senior Corner? She had all the sex scenes carefully book-marked and we had to 
take turns with the book during study hall. Jane became the literary giant of senior year with that little tome of erotic education! She was ahead of her time and a great source of entertainment! (I wish Joyce Stevens were still with us! I know she would remember this!)
Marilyn Bellert What I remember is that Jane
brought Lady Chatterley with her when we went to the Dodge City Basketball Tournament. We gathered in someone’s room and people took turns reading the passages Jane had marked, while the rest of us screamed at the language and the action. I have never read the whole novel, but I still clearly remember some of the action I heard about in Dodge City. No wonder that novel was banned in Boston and elsewhere!
Jane Thompson Olson So sad to hear this news!! I was hoping she would come to the next reunion. She drove the infamous car named “Blue Boy”. So many memories: driving to Kau Kau Korner for hot peach cobbler, parades down Douglas before a game, pitching 
in a quarter for gas…Jane was always orchestrating skits that we would perform at parties. Always so so funny. When she went to Gulf Shores in Louisiana to school (not sure what year), her roommate who had never been out of Louisiana, came to Wichita with Jane. They traveled by train and arrived at Union Station on Douglas. Jane had her roommate convinced that Wichita was still the wild west. She had a bunch of us dress in “cowboy outfits” and meet their train. Jane loved to play tricks and do crazy things. I will look through my “stuff” and see if I can find pictures.
Glenna Stearman Park I remember that Union Station scene. We put Jane’s friend on a luggage cart and rolled her into the station. What scared me most is that I realized that the gun someone gave me to 
carry was real.
Diane Rusch Zinn Jane was my chemistry partner and that friendship introduced me to Jane’s brother who went to Stanford. He convinced me to consider applying to Stanford. I recall Jane and I had some major goofs in our experiments.
Helen Olsen Jones I had a couple of classes with Jane and remember that Jane was very friendly to everyone and lots of fun in class.
Linda Soderberg McKay Fun-loving classmate describes the Jane I remember. She embraced life and I never saw her not being kind and welcoming to others. And what a great smile she always had!
Kay Ellen Consolver So well said (to Linda) and remembered about Jane. Thank you so much.
Skip Granger We flew to Tahiti many years ago, and Jane was on our flight. Mary Ann got us comp tickets since she was with Pan Am; so we lived it up and stayed at the Tahaa Intercontinental. We decided to have dinner together, but learning that the restaurant exceeded our budget, we decided to forgo alcohol. However, we had stopped at Duty Free and had lots of fun 
beverages; so we all retired to our room and partied into the night… ending up laughing on the floor and forgetting about the time difference…until morning!!
Our daughter’s Godparents lived in Sacramento, and being that we were Godparents to their son, they invited us over for dinner to meet his teacher… and guess who that turned out to be? Jane was as surprised as we were, and we had another delightful evening with plenty of laughter again.
If you were with Jane and were not laughing and having fun, something was wrong with you! RIP
Editors’ Note: Many thanks to Glenna Park for collecting these memories of Jane. You can add your memories by leaving a reply in the Comment box below.
This remembrance was originally published in October 2020. You can read the obituary published by Jane’s family by clicking on this link: Jane Darrah Gate, 1942-2020.
