Jane’s Story

Jane Fromer was born in Michigan on April 10, 1935. When she was very young, her parents separated and she eventually moved to Toledo, Ohio with her mother. Florence and younger brother, George. When she was 10 years old, her mother married a wonderful man, Jake Keller, who became a father to Jane. In the following years, she welcomed new brothers - first Jim and later the twins, Tom & Tim.

During her childhood, Jane discovered and nurtured a relationship with Jesus Christ. After graduating from DeVibiss High School, she attended Trinity Bible College in Florida. While there, the college president paired her with a young man, Al Tedder, to sing on radio and television. Several years ago, they told some of their grandchildren about meeting each other. This is a transcript of that conversation:

Jane: Al was a year ahead of me in college... We had our first date at the end of my first year and the end of his second year. He was going with a girl, Margie, with whom he’d been going for five years, and I’d been going with my boyfriend, Bill, for almost five years. Margie was there at Trinity and she and Al kept breaking up and then getting back together. Bill was attending Wheaton College. We agreed to date others while in college.

Grandchild: How did it all happen? Did you both just know?

Jane: Oh, no. HE knew! I didn’t know. I was confused.

Al: Some of us are just more spiritual. We get insight before other people. [chuckles]

Jane: Yeah, right. It had nothing to do with that. I liked Al, but I thought he and Margie were an ideal couple. I mean, there was just no way. And before we even went out, he had this line, and I thought, “Oh, yeah? Right!”

Grandchild: What was the line you told her?

Al: Well, I told you that I thought the Lord wanted us together. [laughter] After our first date, I told her we were going to get married... By that time, I had lost my shyness and had become bold. The first date we had was to a Trinity College banquet. I had asked Janie to go with me, but she had already accepted an invitation from another fellow... Ron. He bought the tickets and bought a corsage for her and then got sick. So he gave me his ticket for her and the corsage for our first date.

Jane: Cheap date. [laughter] We dated and then went to Lumberton, North Carolina, where [the President of Trinity College] had a week of meetings. We were involved in doing the music. I stayed there, and we saw each other every day. But I was going home to go to the Wheaton banquet with Bill. Al kept telling me that he was going to marry me, and Bill knew he would marry me. And I said I don’t have a clue.

Al: Ron was up in Toledo trying to court Janie, too.

Jane: Then I went up to my grandma’s to get away from it all, went to church and there was this guy named Gordon. He went to my grandma and asked, “Would you mind if I took Jane to the fair?” and she said, “If she’d like to go,” and I said, “I guess so.” So we went. He brought me home, pulled into the driveway and said, “I know this very sudden, but I think that God wants...” I said, “Don’t even say it,” and started balling. I didn’t even say anything; I went into the house... He kept writing me, but I didn’t want anything to do with him. After that, I saw Bill every day, and Al sent me two or three letters every day. Bill and I would come home from playing miniature golf and there would be a letter in the mailbox. Bill would say, “Oh, won’t he give up? Doesn’t he know you’ll never be a preacher’s wife?”

Al: Yeah, Ron wrote me and told me: Al, there’s no need to come to Toledo.

Jane: It was just utter confusion.

Al: Ahhh... life is grand.

They, of course, married and had three children: Tim, Terri, and (to their surprise) Todd. There are now 11 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. During their 60th wedding anniversary celebration, they talked about their marriage. See that presentation in the video below.

During the early years of their marriage, Jane took care of the children and household while Al traveled as an evangelist. She would join him whenever possible so they could sing in his meetings. For many years, family summers were filled with travels along the East Coast. Eventually, she supported her husband's ministry as a pastor in various churches in Florida and Michigan.

Following her own interests, she served in the following ways: taught youth Sunday School, sang faithfully in church choirs, was active in the Christian Women's Club, worked as a hospice volunteer, served as a Chaplin in a retirement community, taught women's Bible Studies, discipled others, and faithfully prayed for others every day.

Of course, her faith in Jesus Christ was what she held as most precious. One of her favorite Bible passages was 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”