Education
University of Maryland.
University of Maryland.
Born Jane Ann Nebel and raised in Saint Albans, Queens, she met Henson when she was a sophomore and he a freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park. When, in the late 1950s, Jim took a year off from Sam and Friends to travel in Europe, Jane ran the show, with the help of a UMD classmate. "Among the first of his assignments at WRC was Afternoon, a magazine show aimed at housewives.
Their first child, Lisa, was born the next year, followed by four others: Cheryl (born 1961), Brian (born 1962), John (1965-2014) and Heather (born 1970).
She helped the newly hired Frank Oz learn how to lip sync, and continued to perform non-speaking muppets on Sesame Street from time to time through at least the eighties. She was also responsible for the hiring of puppeteer Steve Whitmire (who would later take over performing Kermit the Frog and Ernie of “Sesame Street” after the death of Jim Henson in 1990) in 1978, after he gave her an impromptu audition in an Atlanta, Georgia airport restaurant.
Towards the end of her life Henson conceived the idea of a stylized puppet show based on the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus. Together with a small group of collaborators, she created a live theatre piece featuring tabletop manger figure puppets built by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.
Jane Henson"s "Nativity Story" premiered at the 2010 Orlando Puppet Festival.
After Henson"s death in 2013, vignettes from the stage show were used in the Columbia Broadcasting System television special "A New York Christmas to Remember", narrated by Regis Philbin. A tribute to Henson from family and friends was part of the national broadcast. Jane Henson died on April 2, 2013, from cancer at the family home in Greenwich, Connecticut.
She was 78.
The film Muppets Most Wanted was dedicated to her and Jerry Nelson.