Ukraine RPCV Jane Arthur dies



Friends recalled the long, strange journey of a free spirit who was born Michael Bruce Bowden in 1947, following a family tradition of naming women after important male relatives. Seeking her own identity after leaving home in Norfolk, Va., she adopted a name that came to her while meditating. A lively, stubborn woman who spoke her mind, she enthralled friends with tales of meeting the Beatles as a teenager and hanging out with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco. Seeking a new mission in 2001, she became a Peace Corps volunteer in community development and small-business programs in Ukraine. She returned to Sacramento the following year, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was a force of nature and devout Buddhist who faced breast cancer by learning and teaching yoga to others coping with illness.

Ukraine RPCV Jane Arthur dies

Obituary: Jane Arthur, 58, reveled in the unconventional

Mar 16, 2006 - The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Mar. 16--Jane Katherine Arthur followed her bliss at age 20, shedding the comforts of a genteel upbringing in Virginia to wear flowers in her hair on the streets of San Francisco's Haight- Ashbury district during the Summer of Love in 1967.

She embarked on an unconventional path that led her to seek enlightenment at an ashram, travel with musical bands and read palms to support her three young children. Along the way she married and divorced five husbands, became a lawyer and served in the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.

A lively, stubborn woman who spoke her mind, she enthralled friends with tales of meeting the Beatles as a teenager and hanging out with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco. She was a force of nature and devout Buddhist who faced breast cancer by learning and teaching yoga to others coping with illness.

Composing her own epitaph, Ms. Arthur wrote that she "lived and loved passionately, completely and without regrets." She died March 4 of cancer in Sacramento. She was 58.

Friends recalled the long, strange journey of a free spirit who was born Michael Bruce Bowden in 1947, following a family tradition of naming women after important male relatives. Seeking her own identity after leaving home in Norfolk, Va., she adopted a name that came to her while meditating.

"She definitely heard her own drummer and was not a conformist," said Jennifer Sadugor, her yoga instructor and close friend. "She was a spiritual person who shared all her spirit with you."

Shocking her family, Ms. Arthur left Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond to run off with her boyfriend to San Francisco. She learned numerology and read palms and tarot cards before moving to Monte Rio in Sonoma County, where she opened a candle shop and sold astrological advice by mail order.

In 1973, she relocated to the Ananda Cooperative Community, an ashram in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Nevada County. Several years later, she moved to Nevada City, where she practiced palmistry while traveling with folk and jazz bands. She began practicing Nichiren Buddhism and became a leader in Soka Gakkai International- USA, an American Buddhist organization.

She also worked in a law office, which inspired her to move to Sacramento and attend Lincoln Law School, where she graduated in 1991. She practiced family law for 10 years, representing parents in child welfare cases.

"She was a voracious reader and enjoyed intellectual conversations and studying," said Peter Dannenfelser, a former husband who met Ms. Arthur when she read his palm at a concert. "When she decided to do something, she threw herself into it."

Seeking a new mission in 2001, she became a Peace Corps volunteer in community development and small-business programs in Ukraine. She returned to Sacramento the following year, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. While receiving chemotherapy, she joined AmeriCorps as a teacher's aide in the San Juan Unified School District.

She took up yoga to ease the stress of illness. She learned quickly and began teaching a class for people with cancer at the Yoga Solution in east Sacramento. Friends said helping others gave her purpose and peace.

"After her cancer, she transformed her life so that she was finally able to express to people what was in her heart," said Diana Carrington, who practiced Buddhism with Ms. Arthur. "She was a beautiful spirit."

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Jane Katherine ArthurBorn: July 17, 1947

Died: March 4, 2006

Remembered for: Unconventional lifestyle as a flower child and palm reader who lived on an ashram and became a devout Buddhist; practiced family law for 10 years; served with the Peace Corps in Ukraine; AmeriCorps volunteer

Survived by: Daughters Kashi Francis Albertsen and Persia Ramana Nelson-Crates, both of Sacramento; son Alexander Garth Samans of Grass Valley; two grandchildren

Memorial services: 2 p.m. Sunday at the SGI-USA Buddhist Community Center, 1812 Tribute Road, Sacramento

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