Jane Henson

Jane Henson is the widow of puppeteer Jim Henson. Born Jane Nebel and raised in New York,cite news |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948401,00.html |title=The Man Behind the Frog |publisher=Time |date=1978-12-25 |accessdate=2007-05-01] she met Henson while both were freshmen at the University of Maryland, College Park. They worked together on the live fifties television show "Sam and Friends", where Jane collaborated with Jim in performing Muppets and devising several of the show's technical innovations, including the use of television monitors to watch their performances in real time. When, in the late fifties, Jim took a year off from "Sam and Friends" to travel in Europe, Jane ran the show, with the help of a UMaryland classmate.cite news |last=Harris|first=Judy|url= http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/jim1.shtml |title=Muppet Master: An Interview with Jim Henson |publisher=Muppet Central|date=1998-09-21 |accessdate=2007-05-05]

Though they were romantically uninvolved for the first few years of "Sam and Friends", Jim and Jane eventually began dating and were married in 1959. Their first child, Lisa, was born the next year, followed by four others: Cheryl (b. 1961), Brian (b. 1962), John (b. 1965) and Heather (b. 1970.) When Jane quit full-time muppeteering in the early sixties to raise their children, Jim hired Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz to replace her.Plume, Kenneth. [http://movies.ign.com/articles/035/035842p1.html "Interview with Frank Oz"] , IGN FilmForce, 2000-02-10. Retrieved on 2007-05-06.] She helped the newly-hired Oz learn how to lip-sync, and continued to perform non-speaking muppets on "Sesame Street" from time to time through at least the eighties. She was also responsible for the hiring of puppeteer Steve Whitmire in 1978, after he gave her an impromptu audition in an Atlanta, Georgia airport restaurant.cite news |last=Plume|first=Kenneth|url= http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/whitmire1.shtml |title=Ratting Out: An Interview with Muppeteer Steve Whitmire |publisher=Muppet Central|date=1999-07-19 |accessdate=2007-05-05]

She and Jim separated in 1986, although they remained close until his death in 1990.cite news |last=Collins |first= James |url= http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/henson.html |title=Time 100: Jim Henson |publisher=Time |date=1998-06-08 |accessdate=2007-05-01] In 1992, Jane established [http://www.jimhensonlegacy.org/ The Jim Henson Legacy] to preserve and perpetuate the work of her late husband. She currently serves on the boards of the Jim Henson Foundation and the American Center for Children's Television. [http://www.nis.wvu.edu/Releases_Old/muppet.html Muppet Co-Founder Jane Henson to Speak at WVU, Nov. 8] , West Virginia University News.]

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