The saga of Mary Jane McCullough Meehan is the story of an Irish daughter of the American West. Jane or “Janie”, as she was known, was born on a Platte River Valley cattle ranch located on McCullough Island east of Maxwell, Nebraska (named for her great-grandfather). The Bar JM Ranch was bordered on the north by the mainline of the Union Pacific Railroad and on the south by the Platte River, just west of Brady. Jane was fiercely proud of her Irish heritage and her President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who “turned the lights on in Lincoln County” through federal programs to build hydroelectric dams throughout Nebraska during the Great Depression.
Throughout her long life, Jane remained true to these rock-hard convictions: her love of all things to do with the Emerald Isle and her support for the party of FDR, the Democrats. John Dewey, the champion of public schools, was another of Jane's heroes, as was the man from Missouri, Harry Truman. Jane believed that the policies of these men created the Middle Class and that preservation of the Middle Class is essential to the continued success of this great country. Jane was very much looking forward to the election of the second Irish American U.S. President in history, Joe Biden, and would be thrilled to know that a woman has been selected as his running mate.
As a youth, Jane was selected to attend Girl's State in Lincoln in 1949 and was the Salutatorian of her high school graduating class in 1950. Jane received a BS in Education in English and Journalism from the University of Nebraska in 1954, where she was an active member and proud alumna of the Kappa Chapter of the Chi Omega sorority and was the second of four generations of women graduates. Jane taught high school English and Journalism in Beatrice and junior high in Lincoln for several years before her marriage to Robert (Bob) Meehan in 1957.
After raising a large family with Bob, Jane furthered her education by obtaining a master's degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) in 1988 and began teaching freshman English at UNO where she sometimes provided office hours in the evening at her home, including a meal, for working students who had difficulty scheduling their instruction. This second career at UNO spanned the 15 years from 1988-2003. During this same time, Jane formed a company with her writing partner Diane Wendt, and as “The Writing Specialists”, provided writing workshops for the business community. Jane's license plate read “I Write”.
Throughout her years in Omaha, from 1963 to 2020, Jane enhanced her life and her community through her volunteer work at St Margaret Mary's Church and School, her beloved Central High School, St. Joseph Hospital Board, the League of Women Voters, Great Books and Fine Lines and participated in multiple bridge clubs and many book clubs, including an Irish Book Club and the Eclectic Book Club, for which she spent considerable time and effort arranging presentations by Nebraska authors and increasing Club memberships. Jane was also a member of the Countryside Journaling Group, which has met twice a month for 25 years.
She was also an author of many poems, short stories, a history book titled “The Saga of Brady Isle” and a ghost writer and editor of books for Omaha business leaders. Many of Jane's poems and short stories were included for many years in “Celebrate”, which was first published by the Program for Women and Successful Aging at UNO and later, due to her efforts, by the Gerontology Department at UNO. Jane's most enduring writings are her annual St. Patrick Day letters that she sent each March for nearly 50 years to a mailing list of over 360 souls.
Jane, with her ever optimistic attitude, focused on motivating the next generation to pursue their education and career path. Jane's gifts to the youth were always gifts of knowledge, either books or subscriptions to magazines, that came wrapped in a comic page from the World Herald with a green ribbon. Jane also ran a clipping service from her home, sending large envelopes stuffed with news clippings on subjects of interest to her children and grandchildren, along with a nice letter written in green ink in her beautiful cursive handwriting.
Jane was preceded in death by her parents Miles and Genevieve McCullough and her husband Robert Meehan. Jane is survived by her children: Kevin Patrick (Cynthia Samaha), Molly Michelle (Daniel Rasby), Mostafa Jamshidi (Rhonda), Daniel Timothy, Monica Mariah (Dr. Michael Harris) and Michael Miles (Lisa). Jane has 16 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, with another expected in December, 2020. To each of them she left a passion for reading, a curiosity for knowledge, a pride in their Irish heritage and love for the Big Red.
Jane died in her green house in the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha, where the family lived since 1963. “Janie” will be greatly missed by her family and many friends!
Due to the impacts of COVID -19, the family will schedule a memorial service at a later time and Jane's ashes will be interred at the McCullough Family Cemetery south of Maxwell. Donations in Jane's honor can be made to the Omaha Public Library Foundation.
