Obituary: Beloved Piano Teacher Jane L. Sherman — 1920-2013

Jane L. Sherman,  a piano teacher to hundreds of children and adults in Los Gatos over the past 45 years, passed away peacefully on Aug. 31. She was 93.

She was born Jane Loveland Gibbons in San Francisco on June 19, 1920 and graduated from Lowell High School in 1936.  She was descended from early settlers in California, and her family owned the first insurance brokerage in San Francisco. 

She attended UC Berkeley for one year, but the circumstances of the Depression of the 1930s forced her to leave school and take a job at the Red Cross.

Sherman married William Schimpferman in 1939, and they had four children.   Divorced in 1960, she then married Martin Speiser of San Carlos but was widowed two years later.  

She faced adversity for a number of years but eventually found her calling through her love of music.   In 1967 she moved to Los Gatos where she began giving private piano lessons. 

 She became an active member of the Music Teachers Association of California (Santa Clara County Branch) and hosted many recitals of her students. 

She will be remembered for her wonderful sense of humor, her passion for beauty and her warm acceptance of all people, regardless of their background or circumstance. 

She is survived by her daughter Linda Graedel of Schaffhausen, Switzerland; her son Scott Sherman of Sonoma, CA;  her son David Sherman of Bristol, England, and numerous grandchildren/great-grandchildren in California, Oregon, New Jersey, Luxumbourg, Switzerland, France, Japan and the United Kingdom. 

A gathering in her memory will be held from 2 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5, in the hall of the Unitarian Fellowship, 15980 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos, CA 95032. All are welcome.