Harriett Jane Black

Harriett “Jane” Moore Black was born on July 13, 1921 in Huntington, Indiana to Paul Albert Moore and Helen Elizabeth Hoover Moore. Jane was the middle child of five including Joe, Tom, Elizabeth, and Mark. In the fall of 1941, after graduating from Christian College and surviving Rheumatic Fever, Jane met a kind and handsome Canadian, Duncan Stewart Black and married him in the following September. They moved to Ft. Erie, Ontario where their first child, Thomas Keith was born. After WWII, they returned to beautiful Indiana, and in 1951 their second child, Harriett Susan was born. In 1956, the family relocated in St. Petersburg, Florida.

As a private school kindergarten teacher and president of the Florida Association for Children Under Six (FACUS) and the Southern Association (SACUS), Jane challenged the Legislature in the State of Florida to make public school education available to all five-year-old children. She was elated when all children were afforded a preschool state education. One of her goals was that every child she had taught, was able to swim before they had left kindergarten. Swimming would be a passion that she participated in into her 90s.

In 1982, in Tallahassee, Florida, Duncan, her husband of 44 years passed away.  Heartbroken but fiercely independent, Jane returned to St. Petersburg to renew lifelong friendships and new adventures. She conducted historical seminars for the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), researched information for Questors, participated in women’s group at her church, and volunteered at Bayfront Children’s Hospital and the St. Petersburg Fine Arts Museum. With great excitement, she was able to help secure the Salvador Dali exhibit to come to the area.

One day on a whim, she and her best friend, Doris Dunn McComber, decided to go on a European tour. At 79, she walked the highlands of Scotland, climbed the Acropolis, and took tours of beautiful cities. Upon returning home, Ron Howard was having a casting call for ballroom dancers in his upcoming movie, Cocoon. Even with continuing her many volunteering activities, swimming 20 laps daily in the pool, walking, and riding on her bicycle, she put on her dancing shoes and got the part, gliding and twirling on the dance floor as an extra.

In 2015, Jane left her beloved St. Petersburg and lived closer to family in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. In the last year of her life, Jane has been under the care and love from the nurses of the Regency Hospice and Dr. James Howell. Jane peacefully passed into Jesus’ loving arms during the early hours of February 11, 2020.

She had given her heart to Jesus during a Billy Graham Crusade as a young woman. Jane particularly loved the book of Mark in the King James Bible. Mark 1:15 says “And saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Jane would want her death to express an opportunity for people to know Christ. She was a true example of a life meeting challenges, fearless exploration, service to others despite her own needs, and an attitude of determination and grace, but most of all, the Love of Christ and His grace and promise of salvation, if we truly turn our lives and needs over to Jesus.

Jane is preceded in death by her husband Duncan Stewart Black.

She is survived by her son Thomas Black and wife Lil of Cosby, Tennessee; daughter Harriet Hurley and husband Wayne of DeFuniak Springs, Florida; grandchildren Kimberly Campbell and husband Kevin, Karen Douglass and husband Ryan, James Hurley Jr. and wife Marie of DeFuniak Springs, Florida, Jonathan Black and wife Misty of Callahan, Florida, and Sue Black and fiancé Stephen Bowen of Nashville, Tennessee; great-grandchildren Blakely and Kaylee Campbell, Cooper, Carter, and Cameron Douglass, Jack, Max, and James Henry Hurley, and Skyler, Ian, and Duncan Black; a beloved sister-in-law  Ruth Black Rushton and husband John of London, Ontario in Canada; nieces and nephews John Moore and wife Carla of Michigan, Linda Larson (Bill), Cindy Netolicky (Jerry), Debbie Schumacher (Owen) of Colorado, Sue Schoen (Bob) of Gayslake, Illinois, and Cindy Stewart (Paul) of London, Ontario in Canada; and a multitude of grand nieces and nephews.

A family celebration of life will be held in late spring in DeFuniak Springs, Florida with internment to follow the Moore family plot in Huntington, Indiana. In Lieu of flowers, those wishing to make memorials, may make a donation to Operation Christmas Child at www.samartianspurse.org in Harriett Jane Moore Black’s name.

Arrangements and services are under the direction of Davis-Watkins Funeral Home and Crematory of DeFuniak Springs, Florida.