Value Figuring out: Rochester socialite and dance teacher lived a remarkable, gorgeous existence

Up till the day she died, Jean Dain Waters beloved to perform backgammon.

She and her husband played it all their married life, in accordance to spouse and children customers, and the pair frequently experienced good friends above to perform as well. In hospice, she would established up the board on her bed to play from daughter Dain Waters.

Nevertheless her mother’s brief-time period memory hadn’t been what it utilised to be, Waters stated her backgammon skills remained sharp.

“It was amazing. It points out to the efficacy, I imagine, of the old-fashioned rote-and-memory mastering,” she reported.

Jean Dain Waters had no trouble remembering Shakespeare, both. The words to her most loved Cole Porter and Frank Sinatra tracks arrived just as effortless, and figured amid a lot of other hard-to-overlook matters about her daily life.

Waters, of Rochester, Minn., died Friday, June 11, 2021, at the age of 100.

Jean Dain Waters

Jean Dain Waters

Born in St. Paul, Waters acquired a private university schooling, initially at the Northrop Collegiate University in Minneapolis — component of the Blake School — and later on at Rosemary Corridor in Connecticut and Bennet Junior College or university in Millbrook, N.Y. Through Environment War II, she labored for the Pink Cross in Washington, D.C., and returned to Minnesota right after marrying fellow Blake School graduate George Franklin Waters, also of Minneapolis, in 1946.

The couple moved to Rochester, in which they lifted three daughters.

Waters became identified for her eccentricities and outgoing nature. She once noticed Ernest Hemingway and his spouse Mary walking down the street and tried using to invite them over for a drink, in accordance to family members lore, but the few declined. (Hemingway was in the midst of procedure for depression at the Mayo Clinic.)

On a excursion to Boston, Waters was denied entry to the Ritz-Carlton restaurant for sporting a pantsuit, which went versus the costume code. She returned in a nightgown and was seated.

“She was incredibly dramatic,” daughter Annie Waters mentioned.

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In addition to singing, and taking part in guitar and piano, Waters cherished to dance. She was a founding member of the Seraphim III liturgical dance group at Calvary Episcopal Church, exactly where she also assisted direct the kid’s choir. From 1975 on she taught a dance-physical fitness study course out of the historic Plummer Dwelling in Rochester.

Referred to as “Fitnastics,” Waters’ lessons merged factors of dance, yoga and Pilates.

“It capitalizes on lyrical, rhythmic motion alternatively than fast percussive motion nevertheless nevertheless meets existing aerobic rules,’’ she instructed the Rochester Post Bulletin in a 2009 story.

Waters’ flair for the extraordinary was also evidenced by her several performances in Rochester Civic Theatre productions including “Kiss Me Kate,” “Lion in Winter season” and “Mame.” She also sat on the boards of the Minnesota Mental Health and fitness Association and the Nationwide Hypertension Affiliation, in accordance to her obituary.

Waters died of what relatives mentioned had been natural brings about just after top a “lovely existence.”

Waters is survived by her daughters and grandchildren. She was preceded in loss of life by her spouse in 2015 immediately after almost 70 yrs of marriage.