JANET W. BATTAILE

I came to know Janet when she was in the Dallas Morning News buro in D.C. and I was at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's. Seemingly alone amid faces with scowls and grumbles, she always exhibited a spunky cheerfulness that made me wish she were my editor. Condolences to her family. Godspeed, Janet.

Jan improved the Times every day she worked at that desk and made richer the lives of all who knew her.

Clyde Farnsworth

Jan Battaile was a dear friend, who I will miss terribly. She brought lightness and laughter to the newsroom along with her deft editing touch. She displayed courage in the face of a horrible disease. I am deeply saddened by her passing.

Editing reporters' copy, Jan toiled quickly and gently, smartly and cheerfully with the whole spectrum of The Times's (i.e. our) fragile and explosive egos without ever provoking any of them. I never heard Jan speak ill of anyone. She knew good writing and bad writing, not good and bad writers. Sharing a car now and then leaving the office in the earlier years of her struggle with cancer, I was struck by how she had assigned her joy of living to one big sunny compartment, and a...

I will truly miss her and I am sorry that we have been out of touch over the last years. And she would have been proud of the obit

Bernard Gwertzman

Jan Battaile was a caring friend, and that was a characteristic that extended to her work on the high-tension editing desks at The New York Times. Her editing made the copy read better and her compassion made the reporters feel better.