Bon voyage, Jane

Born: April 26, 1941 in Montreal
Died: January 24, 2025 in Montreal
Laury Jane McGarrigle, Mountain City Girl
From a youth playing organ at the funerals of Polish aristocrats, to a stint in the Bay Area during the birth of the internet, to a carnival ride as a collaborator with her little sisters, Jane McGarrigle’s life as a writer, a businesswoman, and a musician, was big and full of adventures.
The first of three daughters born to Gabrielle Latremouille and her husband Frank McGarrigle, Jane was born in Montreal, but raised in the red-and-white house her father built in the Laurentian town of Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts.
Lovingly called “The Duchess” by her doting parents, she learned to play piano and sing harmonies in the family home. Scouted by local nuns, she began her career as the 14-year-old organist at l’Église de Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, where her propensity for playing Great Balls of Fire on the church organ gave the first hints of both the extraordinary musical ability and the rock-and-roll attitude that would define her.
A few years after skirting expulsion from boarding school at Combermere for her overplaying of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” she married David Dow in Montreal. Together they hit the road, racing their MGB in sports car rallies, setting up life in Fredericton, NB, and ultimately heading west, crossing the Rocky Mountains and moving to San Francisco in 1964.
With a knack for turning the everyday into an adventure, she reveled in the heyday of counter culture there, nurturing many lifelong friendships at happy hours, après-ski, beach excursions and be-ins and riding their motorcycle to the infamous Rolling Stones concert at Altamont. Settling down, she and Dave had a couple of children, while Janie continued writing music and playing piano gigs with local artists such as Dick Oxtot’s Golden Age Jazz Band.
She had an exceptional love for California and maintained her connection to it for the rest of her life. The couple moved about pretty California with their young family, eventually winding up in the Lake Tahoe area. In 1979, Janie felt the pull of Montreal and returned to her McGarrigle family. Back in Montreal, she was a regular on the Main, managing her now successful kid sisters, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, while joining them on tour and in studio.
In 2015 she and Anna wrote a book about their Laurentian upbringing, “Mountain City Girls,” which the Globe and Mail described as “a non-regretting, red-wine read full of anecdotes and antiquity, with the well-turned phrases of a generation who took care of language.”
A rare musician who deeply understood the complexities of the music business, Janie was a friend to many the singer, picker and player on the dusty road, and spent two decades managing artists, serving as a board member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) where she defended publishing rights for musical authors. Most recently, she played dobro and piano with her partner Peter and their band, The What Four, while fighting off the heartless beast that is ovarian cancer.
Jane is survived by her children, Anna Catherine Dow (Robert McMillan), Ian Vincent Dow (Kathleen Weldon); her grandchildren, Gabrielle McMillan, Islay McMillan, Anna Sophia “Fifi” Dow; her cherished sister, Anna McGarrigle; much-adored Carmichael, Wainwright, and Lanken nieces & nephews, and her sweetheart, Peter Weldon.
Heartfelt thanks to the extraordinary Gynecologic Oncology team at the JGH Segal Cancer Centre. A special thank you to Drs. Gottlieb, Salvador, and Lau, whose expertise, dedication, and compassionate care kept Jane alive and thriving. We will forever be grateful for their care.
