Jeanne Lane Moritz dies
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
Jeanne Rodger Lane Moritz, one of the 17 original founders of the
Community Library in Ketchum, died Nov. 22 after a long illness at her home in Scottsdale,
Ariz. She was born in 1921 in Chicago.
In
the doorway of the original Gold Mine are from left: Anita Gray, Jeanne Lane and Clara
Spiegel. Courtesy Photo Clara Spiegel Collection
Mrs. Moritz came to Sun Valley first in 1940 as a tourist with her family,
and later moved here with her husband, John Crandall "Pete" Lane. Pete Lane was
a local boy whose sheep ranching family owned and operated the Lane Mercantile Building on
Main Street in Ketchum. It was considered the economic and social hub of Ketchum at that
time.
The ubiquitous coffeehouse company, Starbucks, now occupies that historic
building. The Lane Ranch, where Pete and his father ran millions of sheep each year, is
now a subdivision at the south end of Ketchum.
After World War II, Pete Lane opened a sports store. Pete Lane’s
Mountain Sports remains the main sports equipment store in Sun Valley.
Jeanne Lane’s husband passed away suddenly in 1980. She subsequently
married Dr. John Moritz in 1985. He was the widower of her best friend Mary Ellen Moritz,
who had died Nov. 21, 1984.
Moritz had been Sun Valley’s first doctor and the now-defunct Moritz
Community Hospital was named for him. Dr. John Moritz passed away in 1998.
Among the 17 women who founded Ketchum’s Community Library in 1955
were Mary Ellen Moritz, Jeanne Lane (Moritz), Clara Spiegel, Peggy Engl, Anita Gray,
Elnora Seagle and Peggy Kneeland, among others.
The women also started The Gold Mine thrift store in order to support the
library. It occupied a small, abandoned miner’s cabin at Washington Avenue and Fourth
Street in Ketchum, which they rented for $5 a month from Picabo rancher Andy Gardner.
Each of the founding women donated $1 to start a library fund. With only
$17 dollars, the woman encouraged friends from out of town to donate and send them clothes
for The Gold Mine’s first inventory. They made $100 the first day of operation.
Union Pacific, which owned the Sun Valley Resort, donated a lot on Walnut
Avenue, where the library was first built in 1958. That building is today the site of the
much expanded and thriving Gold Mine.
The present-day library was erected in 1976 and operates solely on
donations, Gold Mine sales and the annual Tour of Homes benefit.
Today, the Community Library remains one of only three privately funded
libraries in the country.
Moritz was, during her 50-plus years in the valley, director, vice
chairman, and honorary life director of the library. The Gold Mine was dedicated in her
honor several years ago. She was also an integral member of the congregation of the St.
Thomas Episcopal Church in Ketchum, and a member of the Snowshoe Club, a group of women
who cross-country skied and snowshoed together.
The then Jeanne Lane and Mary Ellen Moritz also started the Sun Valley
Garden Club. They traded the title of president with each other every year. However, the
club was entirely fictitious as there were no other members, no meetings and no dues.
Moritz and her first husband, Pete Lane, had three children, Patty Lane of
Sun Valley, John Lane, director of the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, and Susan Lane of
Whitney, Texas. Her step-children are Derry Ann Moritz of Albuquerque, Dr. Alan Moritz of
Sacramento and Dan Moritz, a psychologist in Flagstaff.
A full obituary is on Page A22 of the printed Idaho Mountain Express
