The world has learned that singing sensation, Jane Morgan passed away in Florida on August 4th at the age of 101 years old. We have all read the Hollywood obituaries. They don’t begin to express the lifelong impact our beloved Jane Morgan had on her Kennebunkport neighbors. I wish to celebrate her as the Kennebunkport force of nature she was to us.

Florence “Flossie” Currier grew up at the Kennebunkport Playhouse. She worked in the box office, helped out as Treasurer, and often made appearances on stage. When she was just 11 years old, she appeared in two roles in the melodrama, “Murder in the Red Barn.”

Florence studied music at Julliard before traveling to Paris to emerge as an international singing sensation. In 1955, she returned to the Kennebunkport stage with a new name, Jane Morgan, and a hit song, “Fascination”. Her association with the Playhouse was crucial to its longevity. She appeared at least once a season in her glamorous Paris Couture gowns that became her trademark; a singing performance that never disappointed.

Jane bought her first house, Blueberry Hill, on North Street in Kennebunkport, in 1958 and continued to summer here for the rest of her life. When Jane was in residence, the Blueberry Hill sign hung near her mailbox.

In the 1960s, she used her celebrity status to help her brother publicize the faltering Kennebunkport Playhouse with a series of ghostly interviews in the local newspapers. She even bought the playhouse property from him for a while to keep it going.

Jane was always a generous supporter of the Kennebunkport Historical Society events. I first met her in 2005 when we were mounting a Playhouse Exhibit at the Pasco Center that featured her collection of Parisian couture gowns. She was gorgeous, warm, funny, and full of personal stories about her Kennebunkport experiences. She came to rummage through our yard sale carrying her own can of bug spray, just in case. In 2019, Albert Back and Jane Morgan shared the floor at the Town House School to tell Playhouse stories.

We will miss your luminous presence, Jane!