Jane Roberta Voss, 78, passed away on June 20, 2026, in Farmington, New Mexico. 

Born and raised in a big working-class family in Ohio, Jane Voss was singing from a very early age. After graduating from the Notre Dame Academy in Toledo, she went to college, first at Marquette University and then at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Realizing that colleges couldn’t teach her what she really wanted to learn, she decided to try a different path. After a short time in Cedar Rapids, she headed for San Francisco, arriving in December of 1969.

Jane began her performing career in San Francisco coffeehouses in 1970, and took to the road in 1972, appearing at folk festivals in the U.S. and Canada. She soon was a familiar presence in the folk music scene on both coasts. Her early reputation was made as an inspired interpreter of old-time country music, especially the songs of the Original Carter Family. Her 1976 release, “An Album of Songs” (Bay Records), has been called “hands down, among the finest albums ever made by an interpreter of old-time country songs.”

The album includes three of her earliest original songs, notably “Keep in Mind (That I Love You)”, which is a well-known favorite in the North American folk music community.

Keep in mind that I love you

Keep in mind that I care

Though the world that’s moving ’round you

May bring grief and despair

When you find yourself alone

Amidst the city’s push and shove

Don’t be discouraged

Keep in mind that you are loved

“Keep in Mind (That I Love You)”

© 1972 · Jane Voss· Obscure Origins Music (BMI)

Jane met Hoyle when he arrived in California in 1972. They fell in love and began their enduring partnership in 1976 in Sonoma, California. That same year, Jane worked as a host-interpreter for the Smithsonian Institution’s Bicentennial Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall. Shortly after that, Jane and Hoyle gave their first duo performances at a tiny saloon in Sonoma County.

Jane and Hoyle toured the country for many years, performing in coffeehouses, for folk music organizations and arts centers, and at music festivals. Their first duo album was released by Green Linnet Records in 1981. It was included in Stereo Review magazine’s Record of the Year Awards. The magazine’s editor wrote, “At the root of it is the ability to write a believable song in a given genre. ... Voss has created here a perfectly believable blues, Mexican canción, Motown number, hillbilly hymn (with shape-note harmonies), and country ballad.”

That album included Jane’s song, “Still (My Thoughts Go Back to You)”, which has been performed and recorded by quite a few bluegrass groups.

Movin’ on my way, I leave you far behind

Ever-changing sights and scenes of my life occupy my mind

And time works many wonders, it is true

Still, my thoughts go back to you

“Still (My Thoughts Go Back to You)’

© 1973 · Jane Voss · Obscure Origins Music (BMI)

After being on the road constantly for four years, Jane and Hoyle were encouraged to settle in Albuquerque by Jane’s old friend Jeanie McLerie. From their home base in Albuquerque, they continued touring and recording and made seven albums together. They began doing school residencies with the New Mexico Arts Division and creating historical concert-lectures under the auspices of the New Mexico Humanities Council.

During that time, they recorded the album “Sparkle and Shine”, which included Jane’s great song, “To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places”, which was covered by the well-known folk singers Dave Van Ronk, Chuck Pyle, and Rosalie Sorrels. A new recording by Denver folk singer Harry Tuft will be released this summer.

I’d like to wake up in some town

And find that you were all around me

And all of us were settled down

And I’d come home

To all my friends in far-flung places

May I stay in your good graces

Hold me in your memory

And when you do not hear from me

Don’t think that out of sight is out of mind

For though our lives may lead us apart

Still you are always in my heart

The love we share is all I know

Gives me grace to go on now

The love we share is all I know

Gives me grace to go on down the road

That leads me on to meet

My fate to taste the bittersweet

Of welcome always waiting for me

Somewhere, always somewhere down the line

“To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places”

© 1985 · Jane Voss · Obscure Origins Music (BMI)

In 1992, Jane and Hoyle moved to Aztec and bought an old house when Hoyle began his twenty years of playing at the Diamond Belle Saloon in Durango. In the immediate area, they have done school residencies and concerts at the Farmington Civic Center, San Juan College, Farmington Museum, Aztec Museum & Pioneer Village, and with Showcase Concerts.

Jane’s all-original CD “Farther Down the Road” introduced another of her most beloved songs, “The Thing That Makes You Beautiful”. It and several others of Jane’s songs have been published in magazines and song books. Jane and Hoyle have been guests on the public radio programs West Coast Live, Mountain Stage, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, and World Cafe.

There are those who say that beauty

Is the flower of a day

That it blooms in youth only

And with age will fade away

But enduring as diamonds

More shining than gold,

The thing that makes you beautiful cannot grow old

Oh, the thing that makes you beautiful cannot grow old

So if there’s ever any question

If you get to feeling dull and old

Won’t you let me be your mirror

Where the truth is always told

In the eye of this beholder

You’re a bright and shining star

’Cause the thing that makes you beautiful is the way you are

Oh, the thing that makes you beautiful

The thing that makes you beautiful

The thing that makes you beautiful is just the way you are

“The Thing That Makes You Beautiful”

© 1985 · Jane Voss · Obscure Origins Music (BMI)

Jane was preceded in death by her parents, Robert and Anna Voss, and by her siblings Donna Anderson, Raymond Voss, Kevin Voss, Christopher Voss, and Ruth Hickman. Her surviving siblings are Michael Voss, Tony Voss, Carleen August, and Jerome Voss.

No flowers, please. You are welcome to donate in Jane’s name to a worthy cause or organization. Hoyle simply asks that you do all you can to bring joy into this troubled old world.

And when I have gone on beyond

 The bound’ries of the known,

 To that place where each of us 

Must travel on alone

That won’t be the end of me

 I know you know it’s true 

You were always here with me

 So I am there with you

A twinkling on your far horizon

 A singing on the wire

 Any way I can get through

 I’ll be comin’ back to you 

A flicker in the firelight

 A whisper on the air

 You may turn to find me gone

But I am there

“I Am There” – © 2000 · Jane Voss · Obscure Origins Music (BMI))