Jane Firmin Saliers

Jane Firmin Saliers died peacefully on Saturday, March 5, 2011 following a lengthy struggle with frontal lobe dementia. She was born in Findlay, Ohio, June 5, 1937, the only daughter of Charles and Eloise Firmin, now deceased. After graduating from Findlay High School, she attended Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, majoring in French and English literature, graduating in 1959. A member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, she sang in the University Concert Choir for four years, and served on the staff of the OWL, a campus literary magazine. While at Ohio Wesleyan she met her future husband and often accompanied him to a rural Methodist Church where he served as a student pastor. She married Don E. Saliers on August 15, 1959, shortly after which they moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where her husband attended and later taught at Yale Divinity School. She taught freshman English in Milford, Connecticut, until the birth of their first child. She worked for a time as a secretary at the New Haven YM/YWCA. For fifteen years Jane sang in the choir and served on the session at First Presbyterian Church in New Haven. While raising four daughters, she also volunteered to deliver books to the elderly, thus beginning her long career as a public librarian. Jane earned a Masters in Library Science degree from Southern Connecticut University in 1972. She moved with the family to Atlanta, Georgia, in July of 1974 when her husband was appointed to teach at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. She served for nearly thirty years as a childrens' librarian in the Atlanta Fulton-County Library System, first at Inman Park Branch, and then for many years at the Ponce de Leon Branch where she was beloved by children and adult patrons alike. She strongly supported the Summer Reading Programs. She was an excellent story-teller and an active member of the Southern Order of Storytellers. In 2006 she retired from the Ponce de Leon Branch after serving nearly 30 years, and in 2009 was honored with the Seanachie Award from the Southern Order of Storytellers. She sang in the University Worship Choir at Emory for nearly twenty-five years. Her hospitality to students in the choir was legendary. Jane loved Atlanta's children and was a great encouragement to young readers through her craft programs and story times, as well as to older children in the summer reading programs. Even in the course of her illness she read books to kindergarten children at Oakhurst Elementary School and to her four grandchildren.
She is survived by her husband, Professor Don E. Saliers, and three daughters: Jennifer Elaine Saliers, Emily Ann Saliers, and Elizabeth Jane Saliers, all of Atlanta. Her youngest daughter, Carrie Christiana, died in Los Angeles in 1999. Services will be held on Saturday, March 12th, at 11 a.m. in Cannon Chapel on the Emory University Campus, with the Rev. Susan Henry Crowe and the Rev. Bradley Schmelling officiating. Visitation with the family will be held Friday evening, March 11th, from 7:00 until 8:30 p.m. at A. S. Turner & Sons, 2773 North Decatur Road, (404-292-1551). In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be given in her memory to the Atlanta Public Library Foundation, c/o Sherry Sinclair, One Margaret Mitchell Square, Atlanta, GA, 30303. Gifts should be marked, "for Summer Reading Program." Gifts may also be given honoring her memory to the Emory Friends of Music, Emory University, Atlanta, 30322. Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.asturner.com.


Funeral Home:
A. S. Turner & Sons
2773 North Decatur Road
Decatur, GA
30033