The Twin Cities jazz scene is mourning the loss of one its most passionate participants. Not a singer, musician or composer.

A retired nurse, Jane Donahue.

A significant behind-the-scenes contributor to the genre for nearly three decades, Donahue died Friday from injuries suffered in a single-car traffic accident 16 days earlier in Lake Elmo. She was 77.

Donahue, of Roseville, helped promote jazz in the metro area in any way she could, whether it was recruiting members to the Twin Cities Jazz Society, editing the society's Jazz Notes monthly newsletter or compiling the jazz scene's most comprehensive metro area performance calendar.

"Jane was there at the start [of the Jazz Society] 30 years ago," said Lee Engele, a jazz singer and the current society president. "She was part of that group that really got it going. ... She was so exuberant about it, [but] calm and quiet and humble in her way."

Engele said that when she arranged to honor Donahue in February at the Dakotah Jazz Club in Minneapolis for her tireless contributions, Donahue "just kept her head down, she didn't want to come up on the stage ... she didn't want to talk. It was so cute."

Arne Fogel, a society board member, jazz singer and regular host on KBEM (FM 88.5), the metro area's radio home for jazz, said of Donahue: "You might be excused if you saw her as a quiet suburban lady who didn't get enthused about much of anything, until you talked to her."

He described her as "more like a fan of the music. She was from the generation from when jazz was a little closer to being a popular music."

While not a performer, Donahue "became an aficionado and would take many trips to the New Orleans Jazz Festival," said Barney Donahue, her husband of nearly 50 years. "She took me down to New Orleans many times," he added, noting his own leanings toward the blues.

"I don't know what grabbed her [about jazz] other than an evolution of her interests. That's the best I can come up with."

Jane Donahue was born and raised in Hudson, Wis., and studied in the Twin Cities to become a nurse. She worked at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul and later at a nursing home before retiring about 20 years ago.

Besides her husband, survivors include their sons, Michael of New Brighton, David of Danbury, Wis., and Paul of Hudson, and four grandchildren.

A "fairly sizable" celebration of Jane Donahue's life with music is being planned for late January, her husband said.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482