Jane Hansell

Jane B. Hansell, 67, of Lake Katrine, New York, passed away peacefully on Saturday June 24^th after a well-fought cancer illness. She is survived by her husband of 43 years, Steven Hansell, daughters Sarah Jane Dernison (Jeremy) and Elizabeth Erin Hansell Wikane (Matthew), four grandchildren, Emma and Elijah Dernison, and Ethan and Hailey Wikane. She is sister to William R. Bradley, and aunt to Alysia Trevor (David) and Abigail Bradley. Many other nieces, nephews, cousins, and sisters-in-law are also surviving. She was predeceased by her parents, Richard “Dick” and Elizabeth “Betty” Bradley, sister-in-law Lori Bradley, and nephew Wyatt Robert Bradley.

Jane loved her family and her home. She resided in West Hurley, NY as a child. She lived in Shokan with her husband and children for many years before her most recent home in Lake Katrine. She valued being close to family and the people she loved. She was grateful to be able to live closer to her daughters and grandchildren in recent years.

Jane was a proud woman. She took great pride in her accomplishments and her family. She survived breast cancer eight years prior to her uterine cancer diagnosis in May of 2022. However, few, it seemed, knew about her battles and her survival. She was reserved about what she shared, but when she did share and open herself, she was startlingly honest and brave.

Jane was an artist, creative in her costuming, decorating her home, and re-decorating, and re-decorating again. She also had a successful crafts business many decades ago with a dear friend. She painted and stenciled walls, furniture, and fabrics. She loved her dream car, a powder-blue Saab convertible. And when it was sadly destroyed in a car crash, she got another! A red one!

Jane was proud of her creativity, both the artistry of her work as a costume designer, and in the changing designs of her home. Her greatest passion was costume design and she made it a point to mention prior to her passing, that this was her greatest love, more than her first career in dental hygiene. Anyone who knew Jane knew that she was frequently busy sewing her latest costume in the eleventh hour for her most recent project.

Jane said that she felt proud about her dental career not because of the work itself, rather, it was the patients that she enjoyed the most. She was grateful to visit her patients every day she worked.

As sole owner of her store, First Street Dancewear, she carried on her love of seeing those familiar faces every day. Her patients became her customers! She took great pride and joy in fitting a little ballet dancer’s first pair of point shoes, instructing them how to properly sew the ribbons and elastic (and that it was their responsibility – not their mom’s), and teaching daughters and parents how to make a proper ballet hair bun. So many will fondly remember walking into her store with the familiar jingle of the door chimes and see her face looking up from a catalog or from behind her sewing machine. She loved the beginning of the school year in September, but also returned home exhausted each day. Most of the 18 years that she ran her store, she was open six days a week. She had help from her “ballet moms” friends and her interns. To educate young girls on how to sew, follow a pattern, or create their own design was greatly valued by her and those she taught. Her legacy of costume design survives in those she took under her wing.

Our family is grateful to Memorial Sloan-Kettering as well as Hudson Valley Hospice, and most importantly, to know that Jane is at peace.

Arrangements entrusted to Keyser Funeral & Cremation Service, 326 Albany Avenue, Kingston, NY 12401, where family and friends may visit on Thursday June 29, 2023 from 5pm to 8pm. The funeral service will be held at 10am on Friday June 30, 2023 at Old Dutch Church, 272 Wall St., Kingston, NY 12401. Donations can be made in Jane's memory to your organization of choice for cancer care and research or local not-for-profit theater, dance, and arts. A tribute for Jane can be found at www.KeyserFuneralService.com, where you may leave memories and expressions of sympathy for her family.