Ina Saxon Beard Mccraney

Mom was born Ina Saxon McCraney and like her mother, aunts and uncle, she was delivered by her grandfather, Napoleon S. Johnson, MD. She was named for an ancestor who had supposedly died in a yellow fever epidemic.

Her mother and biological father (James K. McCraney) were only married briefly and divorced shortly after her birth. She was primarily raised by her grandparents, Napoleon Strock Johnson and Escharles Stewart Johnson. The first of their grandchildren, mom was to be a Southern Lady with no apologies for her origin. She excelled in art and piano and schooled primarily in religous boarding schools until her teens. When she was 14, her mother remarried James Randolph Beard, Jr., MD. Through unusual means, her mother was able to change the birth certificate to reflect James Beard as her father.

She attended high school in Port Jefferson, NY and Bernardsville Township, NJ. At age 16 she graduated from high school and attended Adelphi College in Garden City, New Jersey. While there she met dad, Gordon P. Kane. They began as friends, then dated and finally married April 26, 1952. They had 3 children: Kathleen Stewart Kane (1954-2006), Gordon Randolph Kane (1958- ) and John Christopher Kane (1961- ). Six grandchildren: Joseph L. Patrick, Keith R. Patrick, Christina Kane, Jennifer Kane, Jason Kane and Daniel Kane.

Mom was an artist, a musician and lover of the garden. As a teacher, she taught art, math and mechanical drawing and retired in 1973. Like most of her family, mom had a wicked sense of humor. She taught in multiple settings but her favorite was in a rough inner-city high school in Mobile, Alabama. I can recall she always had great stories to tell about her "day at work." Once, she told me, "You know, until I worked at Toulminville High School, I never knew that "mother" was half a word."

That was my mom.