Janey (Jane Elizabeth) Hauber, age 69, of Kansas City, Missouri, died February 25, 2015 at her home.

Janey was born on January 9, 1946 in Marshall, Missouri. She was one of three children born to Bill and Ann Hauber. The family moved to Osawatomie, Kansas when she was three. Janey graduated from Osawatomie High School with the Class of 1964. She attended Emporia State University and graduated in 1968 with a B.A. She then moved to New Jersey where she worked as a Community Service Case Manager for the State of New Jersey. She attended Rutgers State University in New Jersey from 1979 to 1982 and received a Masters Degree in Labor Studies. She then worked as an Education Coordinator from 1982 to 1985, when she worked as a Disability Awareness Trainer until she retired in 1993.

Janey was very active in Regional and Community theatre, acting in such diverse productions as “A Lion in Winter,” “The Odd Couple,” “Godspell,” “Die Fledermaus,” “Lil’ Abner,” “Sweet Charity,” “You’re a Good Man Charley Brown,” and Tennessee Williams’ “Night of the Iguana” among others, with her special interest being in musical theater. She also sang with the Hopewell Valley Chorus and soloed every season. She sang the National Anthem at the Kansas City Royals games several years during Organ and Tissue Awareness Night. She also sang for the Kansas City T-Bones games. She was asked to sing “What a Wonderful World” in 2004 at a celebratory breakfast honoring 50 years of transplantation.

Janey was born with a congenital heart condition, which was misdiagnosed until 1989 when her cardiologist in Princeton, New Jersey sent her to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City where the doctors were amazed to find that she had a rare condition call Trunkus Arteriosus and it was then that she was informed that she would soon need a heart/lung transplant. Janey returned to Kansas in 1993 to wait for her life saving heart/lung transplant, which she received in 1994 from the Universityof Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She had a toxicity from one of her medications, which required her to go on dialysis for 13 months from 1997 to 1998 when she received a kidney transplant at St. Luke’s Hospital on the Plaza in Kansas City.

Janey was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her sister Sandra Hanson and her husband Elmer of Puyallup, Washington; brother Bill Hauber and his wife Jackie of Lawrence, Kansas; 4 nephews Allen and Scott Hanson of Federal Way, Washington; Brad and Jeff Hauber of Lawrence, Kansas; 3 great nieces Elizabeth Ann Hanson, Savanna Hauber, and Analucia Hanson; one great nephew Jordan Hauber; and many other relatives and friends.

Memorial contributions are to North Shore Animal League America (a no-kill animal shelter), Midwest Transplant Network, or National Kidney Foundation and can be sent c/o Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home, 605 O'Neal Ave., Osawatomie, KS, 66064.