Jeanne D. Chaney, retired schoolteacher and wife of Hall of Fame basketball coach John Chaney, has died at 93
She lived in Mount Airy and spent many evenings grading papers and planning classes, and simultaneously helping her own three children with their homework.
Jeanne D. Chaney, 93, of Philadelphia, retired longtime health and physical education teacher at the old Samuel S. Fels Middle School, former girls’ volleyball coach, lifelong reader, world traveler, and wife of Hall of Fame college basketball coach John Chaney, died Saturday, Feb. 28, of age-associated decline at her daughter’s home in Lehigh County.
Born in Clearwater, Fla., Mrs. Chaney and her husband moved to Southwest Philadelphia after college in the late-1950s, and she taught middle school students at Fels until the mid-1990s. They moved to Mount Airy later, and she spent many evenings grading papers and planning classes, and simultaneously helping her own three children with their homework.
“She would mark papers for a while and then help me with my spelling,” said her daughter, Pam Harvey. “Then she would go back and mark more papers.”
Sometimes, said her son John Jr., after she retired, she would ask that he drive by the school so she could recall her days there. “She loved the young students,” he said.
Former students called her a “cool teacher” in a Facebook tribute, and said, “I will never forget her classes.” Her daughter said: “She always said seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-graders were special because of their age, because of their hormones and all the changes they were going through. She said they needed extra patience.”
Like her husband, Mrs. Chaney played basketball at what is now Bethune-Cookman University in Florida. They met in college, married, and she went on to coach middle school girls at Fels while he taught phys ed at first and then coached boys’ and men’s basketball at Simon Gratz High School and Cheyney State and Temple Universities.
“She coached more like an educator than he did,” said her son John. “She was more calm, cool, and collected than he was.”
In 1992, Mrs. Chaney accompanied the Temple team when it played a game in her native Florida. “I don’t usually go to the games because I want to be in position to walk away from the TV,” she told the Tampa Bay Times. “But coming home is different.”
In a Facebook post, the Temple men’s basketball team said: “We honor her life, her legacy.” One friend thanked her for keeping her more excitable husband “grounded for all those years.”
Jeanne Dixon was born July 29, 1932. She was the seventh of 13 children, and the 10 girls and three boys remained close.
“Her siblings were her heartbeat,” her family said in a tribute, “and she could often be found on the phone with one of them catching up on the latest family news.” They said her favorite motto was: Always look out for one another.
She was a majorette, member of her high school girls’ basketball team in Clearwater, and a lifelong reader who started early. “If Jeanne couldn’t be found,” her family said, “she was likely hiding behind a chair with a book.”
She earned a basketball scholarship to Bethune-Cookman and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. In Philadelphia, she and her husband had sons Darryl and John Jr., and a daughter, Pam. Her son Darryl died in 2012. Her husband died in 2021.
Mrs. Chaney enjoyed Danielle Steele novels, crossword puzzles, shopping, flea markets, casino visits, and her annual family reunion in Florida. She expressed herself, her family said, through fashion and jewelry. She traveled with friends and family to Paris, Hong Kong, Bermuda, and elsewhere.
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She was close to her mother-in-law and told the Daily News in 1990 that she especially appreciated the sweet potato pie and lemon cake the elder Mrs. Chaney served at family get-togethers. “That’s what I enjoyed most,” she said, “the calories.”
She liked musical theater and dancing. She listened to singers Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Michael Jackson.
“She was an amazing woman, an amazing mother,” her son John said. “She was always there for me.” Her family said: ”Her home was always a place of welcome laughter and love.”
In addition to her daughter and son, Mrs. Chaney is survived by grandchildren, great-grandchildren, a brother, a sister, and other relatives. Ten siblings died earlier.
A celebration of her life was held earlier.