Jane Riley Obituary, Death – The 23rd of February is Jane’s birthday, and Cleveland, Ohio is the city where she was born. In 1968, she made the journey to the city of San Francisco. She passed away on February 19 in Napa, where she had moved to after leaving this location in 2010, having lived here until moving to Napa. Up until that point, she had made this place her home.
Jane worked at KCBS 740 in San Francisco for more than three decades, first as a broadcaster and then as a manager at the station. (Herb Caen refers to her during their time together as the “Queen of KCBS.”) She was the one who came up with the idea for and provided the voice for the programme known as “Bay Area Woman” while she was working at KCBS.
In this capacity, she was responsible for conducting interviews with over a thousand working women. She was a member of the Broadcast Legends and served as the Past President of the American Women in Radio and Television organisation, which she also helped start. In addition, she was one of the co-founders of the Bay Area Women’s Roundtable. Jane was only the club’s second female member in its entire history when she joined the San Francisco Rotary Club in 1986, making her the club’s second female member overall.
Jane was a Francophile who travelled to a great number of different countries, including France, and carried mementoes from her travels back with her. Her heartbroken son Jim, her daughter-in-law Kristin, her relatives on the east coast and in France, and her countless friends in the Bay Area will all be profoundly saddened by her passing.
