Jane Williamson Schoeniger, 82, formerly of Chestnut Hill and Erdenheim, a teacher and a longtime community volunteer, died Oct. 30 at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson, Md., where she had been living for the past year.
Mrs. Schoeniger was an accomplished piano teacher who had taught hundreds of students in the Philadelphia area for more than three decades. She also had taught sixth grade for a time at Erdenheim Elementary School.
She had been a volunteer at Chestnut Hill Hospital and an ambulance driver for the Northwest Philadelphia Ambulance Service.
Born and raised in Chestnut Hill, she attended J.S. Jenks Elementary School and Shady Hill School, graduating in 1952 from Stevens School. While a seventh-grade student at Shady Hill, she performed in a school production of “Peter Pan” with Grace Kelly.
Before receiving her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1956, she received a scholarship to study at the University of Oslo, Norway, during the summer of 1955.
A lifetime learner, she later received bachelor’s degrees in music and art history from Chestnut Hill College and a master’s degree in music education from the University of Illinois. She also attended a classical music seminar at Eisenstadt, Austria, and studied at Oxford University.
In 1957 she married Whitman P. Cross, and the couple raised four children in Chestnut Hill before the marriage ended in divorce. In 1980 she married Robert K Schoeniger and lived in Erdenheim. Mr. Schoeniger died in 2016.
A longtime member of the Wissahickon Skating Club, she enjoyed ice dancing. She also studied ballroom dancing and won several competitions.
She was a member of the Junior League and was active in both St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.
Mrs. Schoeniger is survived by sons Robert S. Cross, of Tulsa, Okla., and Jonathan W. Cross, of Vienna, Va.; daughters Elizabeth C. “Heidi” Fellows, of Ashburn, Va., and Mary E. “Wendy” Prieto, of Baltimore, Md.; three stepsons; and seven grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill with interment at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd. Relatives and friends may call at the church at 9 a.m.
Memorial donations may be made to Gilchist Hospice of Towson, 555 Towsontown Blvd., West Towson, MD. 21204. – WF
