Cancer Takes Jane Henson, Wife of Jim Henson

Jane Nebel Henson, creative partner and former wife of famed puppeteer Jim Henson, has died, according to a statement from the Jim Henson Company released yesterday.

According to the statement, Henson, aged 79, passed away at her home in Connecticut yesterday after enduring a lengthy cancer diagnosis. 

Jane Henson was born to Jane Anne and Adalbert Nebel on June 16, 1934, in Queens, New York City. Her father provided for the family by working as an astrologer writing under the nom de plume Dal Lee, and produced a Dictionary of Astrology and other texts about astrology and the occult which, though out of print, still circulate among book collectors. 

Jane was a senior at the time she met Jim Henson, who was only a freshman, while taking a puppetry class at the University of Maryland, according to an interview with Jane Henson recorded at a Henson company event last spring. The two shortly began working for WRC-TV, NBC's affiliate in Washington, DC after being recruited from the class by station management to produce a puppet show for broadcast.

"He didn't have a background in puppetry and, neither did I," said Jane in the interview. "Everybody else in the class was seniors in art education and we all knew each other, and then this freshman came in and he just very slowly took over the class."

That show, Sam and Friends, aired between The Huntley-Brinkley Report and The Tonight Show Starring Steve Allen. While only broadcast locally, the show's reputation spread, and the Muppets were soon making guest appearances on the sets of the era's top variety shows.

In 1959, the two were married in a ceremony in Salisbury officiated by Jim Henson's uncle. The two started their family in Bethesda, where they created a house that had a complete puppetry film studio and workshop. Over the next 10 years, Jane gave birth to five children, Lisa, Cheryl, Brian, John and Heather.

"I really loved having all the kids," said Jane in the interview. "I don't know that I was a very good mother, but they taught me all I know. They were very good kids."

As the Henson name grew in renown, the family moved first to New York City, then to Greenwich, CT, where Jane worked as assistant art teacher at the Mead School for Human Development.

In addition to an official role within the Jim Henson Company, where she recruited, screened and hired many of the troupe's puppeteers, Jane Henson was a tireless promoter of the art of puppetry. She co-founded The National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and served on the board of the Jim Henson Foundation, which focuses on promoting puppetry. 

She was also associated with the Union Internationale de la Marionette, the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York, the University of Maryland Alumni Association, the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, the Paley Center in New York, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Jim and Jane Henson were legally separated in 1986, but remained on good terms and were involved in each other's lives.

Jane was with Jim the night he suddenly died of complications from a severe case of pneumonia, according to an interview she gave with People Magazine published in June, 1990, republished on Muppetcentral.com.

Following his death, she also created the Jim Henson Legacy in 1992. Later, she created the Jane Henson Foundation in 2001 to expand her philanthropic efforts.

Instead of flowers, donations may be sent in Henson's memory to the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Jim Henson Foundation for the Support of Puppetry, or The Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theatre Centre.