Janet Keener

1933 - 2023

News Story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Janet Keener of Holland, a longtime Toledo Public Schools music teacher who enjoyed volunteering in retirement, died Sept. 5 at Ohio Living Swan Creek in South Toledo. She was 89.

She died after suffering a stroke, son Eric Keener said.

"Janet had a passion for music and she always wanted to share that passion with her students. She wanted to get them excited about music and singing," said Jane Lyon, a friend and former colleague, adding that "one of the highlights" was helping put on a Nutcracker play on Christmas at Harvard Elementary School.

Mrs. Keener retired in the mid-2000s from TPS after at least 35 years as a music teacher.

After teaching music at Nathan Hale Elementary School in West Toledo for a few years, she took time off to raise her children, then taught music at Harvard in South Toledo for about 25 years until retirement.

"She loved music," Mr. Keener said. "And she was able to transpose her love of music over to her students. It gave them the desire to learn an instrument or to become a singer themselves."

Mrs. Keener was a dedicated and patient teacher who loved children and spent extra time with her students, Mr. Keener said.

Having lost three daughters, she "enjoyed being around children as much as possible," Mr. Keener said. And she "kept tabs" on her former students and remembered them fondly, according to Ms. Lyon.

Her daughter Stephanie was a stillborn in 1963, Gretchen died of asthma in 1966 at age 3, and Christine, Stephanie's twin, succumbed to bacterial meningitis in 2004 at age 41.

In retirement, Mrs. Keener volunteered for Toledo Symphony League and Toledo Youth Orchestra, helping raise funds for music scholarships and serving as a judge at music competitions.

A classical music singer by training, she was also a self-taught pianist.

Born Oct. 9, 1933, in Elkview, W.Va., to Minney and Bernice Grose, she graduated from high school in Elkview in 1951, and later, in 1955, from what now is University of Charleston, with a bachelor's degree in music. She also took singing classes in college and later got a master's of education degree from the University of Toledo.

In her free time, she enjoyed dining out with her friends, attending concerts, and gardening.

She was a lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church in Maumee, where she sang in a choir and played piano.

Along with her daughters, she was preceded in death by her husband, Rex Keener.

Surviving are her son, Eric Keener, and three grandchildren.

A celebration of life ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Maumee church, where a funeral service will immediately follow at 11 a.m.

Arrangements are by the Bersticker-Scott Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to Toledo Symphony League Remembrance Fund.