Jane Krutz

State public TV loses its 1st lady

— Jane Krutz, whose unmistakable drawl and Indefatigable personality graced Arkansas public television onair membership drives for nearly 50 years, has died.

Krutz, known as the first lady of public television, died from kidney failure Sunday at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock, family members said Monday. She was 86.

Her death came about one week after her last appearance on the Arkansas Educational Television Network, where several times a year for 47 years she would volunteer her time and energy to urge viewers to support the state’s Public Broadcasting System programming.

“Ms. Jane has been invaluable to AETN since the very beginning,” Allen Weatherly, the network’s executive director, said in a statement on the network’s website. “It is literally true that there might not have been an AETN without her.

“In fact, she was advocating for a public television station for Arkansas years before we finally made it to the air in the mid-1960s. We have been so fortunate to have someone so involved and outspoken on behalf of AETN and public media as a whole. In 1995 she testified before Congress and took a powerful stance about the power of public television in America and in Arkansas.She was just a remarkable person.”

Indeed, Krutz, the only non industry witness to testify before a House subcommittee considering PBS financing in January 1995, displayed her good-humored wit in her testimony.

“I don’t know about y’all, but, honey, where I came from, we couldn’t even spell ‘Pavarotti’ before PBS brought him to us,” she told the panel. “And if you pull [PBS] away from them now, the next generation won’t be able to spell it, either.”

Krutz was awarded the Community Service Governors Award for Volunteerism; was named the best speaker in Arkansas by the Arkansas Speakers Association; and was named PBS National Volunteer of the Year.

“Most Arkansans recognize Krutz as the face or voice of AETN from her numerous appearances during the network’s membership drives,” AETN said in a statement. “Since 1996 she has also served on the AETN Commission. The original studio at AETN -still in service - is named for her.”

Born Frances Jane Gray in Conway on Oct. 1, 1925, Krutz spent her early years in Vilonia before she moved to Little Rock, where she graduated from Little Rock Central in 1943. By that time, she already was married to the love of her life, Ted Krutz. Her husband died in 2007. She also was preceded in death by a daughter, Vikki.

Retired Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Robin Mays said she was told by family members that Krutzspoke of being ready to join her husband and daughter in heaven but wondered if she could squeeze in one more book signing she had scheduled in Jonesboro. The book, Miss Jane: Speeches and Stories, was published last year.

Krutz reared three children, all the while fashioning a career as a building manager, first at the 1515 Building on West Seventh Street. It now houses offices of the Arkansas Finance and Administration Department. She also managed the Executive Building on West Markham Street and the 2020 Building on West Third Street, both of which are near the state Capitol.

Mays met Krutz while attending Little Rock University, now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, with one of the Krutz children, Janie Lay. Mays eventually learned that the elder Krutz was no different in person than she was on television.

“If she told a story, there was always the Krutz factor, which means it had been embellished quite a bit,” Mays said.

Krutz’s volunteering and advocacy eventually extended to more than 40 Arkansas organizations. She served as president of eight of them, including the Salvation Army, Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Youth Council, Nazarene Women Association, PTA, and the Building Owners and Managers Association.

In between, she became friends with politicians who included former U.S. Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., who wrote the forward to her book; former President Bill Clinton; and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who called her at the hospital. But she just as easily enjoyed people who recognized her voice while she was vacationing in Florida, her family said.

“She had a genuine love for everybody, and wanted the best for every single person she ever met,” a grandson, Jake Kreulen, said.

Arkansas, Pages 10 on 03/27/2012

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