The impact of the coronavirus hit close to home this week for relatives and friends of Waco native and longtime New York City resident Jan Forney, a singer, entertainer and caterer who died Monday in her New York home after suffering COVID-19 symptoms. She was 66.
People who knew and worked with her remembered her lively spirit, her singing ability and a personal sophistication that matched the city where she spent much of her life.
“She was a special person — elegant and cool, the true definition of fabulous,” said McLennan County Commissioner Pat Miller, whose older sister Jocelyn was a Waco High School classmate and friend of Forney.
Forney, who also went by Forney-Holden after marrying Al Holden in 2017, grew up in Waco, daughter of Samuel and Martha Forney and sister to Samuel “Chipper” Forney Jr. She graduated from Waco High School in 1971 and earned a degree from Rice University in 1975 before moving to Boston, then New York City, where she lived for much of her life.
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New York and its cultural life proved fertile ground for Forney, who worked as a jazz singer and performer, earned a master’s from New York University, studied at The Juilliard School and the Institute of Culinary Education, and ran a catering business, My Secret Garden Enterprises. Among her performing highlights was singing the role of Annie in national tours of George and Ira Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” in 1986 and 1991, including a performance at Lincoln Center in New York City.
“She was our rising star,” cousin Patsy Wheeler said. “New York was where she was destined. … She always tried to make her family proud (and) she was willing to do the work to survive in New York.”
Wheeler grew up in Waco, and her mother, Vivienne Mayes, was a good friend of Martha Forney. Wheeler has lived in Duncanville with her husband for more than 25 years.
Although Forney spent most of her life in New York City, she returned to Waco around 2012 to care for her mother, Martha, for several years. True to form, the singer got involved in the community where she found herself.
She teamed up with Waco guitarist Frank Exum and other musicians including Trammell Kelly, Terry Bell, Vincent Bryce, Byron Swann, Tonee Calhoun and Dave Wild to sing jazz at various venues such as Klassy Glass. Exum met her through the late Waco saxophonist Richard Thomas and was flattered when she asked him to accompany her.
“She was just a phenomenal singer,” Exum said. “I thought, Why not? With a voice like that, I got the easy job.”
Forney put together an all-female combo called Venus Envy. As the group’s membership changed, Exum was asked to take over on guitar.
“She was always bubbly and smiling, and it carried over into her singing and vocals,” Exum said.
The guitarist and the singer teamed up to perform at weddings, and when working off sheet music, he often found himself transposing on the fly when she would pitch a song into a vocally comfortable key.
“Fortunately, my training allowed me to barely keep up,” he said.
Forey also sang at Waco community benefits and festivals, played the part of Calpurnia in a 2014 Waco Civic Theatre production of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” volunteered with Meals on Wheels and in 2012 became active in the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama, even traveling to Florida to canvass local voters.
The suddenness of her death shocked friends and family. Wheeler recently had mailed a package to Forney in New York and when she had not heard back, she called her cousin. Those calls were not answered, and eventually Wheeler heard the shocking news from one of Forney’s New York friends: Forney had felt ill for several days with the fever, cough and breathing difficulty associated with COVID-19. She had called her doctor for advice but had not heard back, the friend said.
When friends got no answer to their calls for a time, police were called to investigate, and Forney was found dead in her bed, the friend told Wheeler.
The coronavirus crisis in New York City, where more than 8,000 have died in the state in recent weeks, has complicated plans for a funeral or memorial service. Funeral homes are overwhelmed with burials, and coronovirus restrictions are limiting numbers at graveside services. Wheeler said Forney’s husband, Al, reportedly is hospitalized with COVID-19, and since Forney’s parents and brother dead, there is some confusion on who can claim her body for burial.
Wheeler has been communicating with Forney’s New York friends and said there have been discussions of holding a virtual memorial of Forney because of difficulties in travel and public gatherings. Regardless,friends and family have fond memories to share, Wheeler said.
“She was adventurous, nonjudgmental and she met no strangers,” she said.