Jean Klein didn’t set out to become a Rye legend.
But she is.
Klein is better known as both Mother Goose and Granny Jean for her decades of nursery school “Tales for Tots” story-telling at the Rye Methodist Church, Christ Church, and the Rye Free Reading Room.
But now, age 90, she’s become an inspiration to another generation as one of the oldest members of the senior chair exercise classes at the Rye Recreation Department.
And the many lives she has lived makes her a stand out.
Twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m., Klein is in the Rye Rec aerobics studio lifting light weights, doing downward dogs and sun salutations, pilates leg lifts, tai chi glides, and various stretch-and-flex moves.
When class is over, she exits for a cool-down that includes a solo walk around the Rye Rec campus. And then she returns to the studio for a mind-sharpening game of mahjong.
Then it’s on to The Osborn, where she is a volunteer reference librarian, or the Garden Club, or compiling a family history book for her three no-longer young children and three grandchildren.
And, oh, the stories she can tell.
Her mother, the former Ruth Myer, infused Jean with an early love of reading. She studied early childhood development at Westchester Community College and met her future husband George on a blind date in Rye. They married soon after and had three children, Ruth, George Jr., and Emily.
But the turning point involved Emily.
Exactly 60 years ago this month, Emily, then five, was hit by a car while walking to a play date on Stuyvesant Avenue. She underwent multiple surgeries at United Hospital in Port Chester, and spent six weeks in a coma.
Jean stayed at her side, reading stories, nursery rhymes and letters from Emily’s childhood friends. And finally, as Jean read Emily an encouraging note from a boy named Jimmy, Emily’s eyes opened and she said “Jimmy.”
She was on her way to recovery.
Jean was on her way to becoming a story teller whose tales for tots came straight from her heart into those of young listeners. That ability helped Jean go from babysitting for a nursery school program founder at Rye Methodist Church to helping run the kiddy program there as well as at Christ Church.
She also earned a degree in early childhood education from SUNY’s Empire State College. And when the Rye Free Reading Room started a similar program, they hired Jean. She became the library’s beloved Mother Goose/Granny Jean.
And no matter what has happened, and a lot has, Jean’s still going strong.
Her life is filled with memories of her extended family, the countless children to whom she read years ago and who how, as parents themselves, read to their own children.
And she especially loves her walks around Rye Rec, pausing at her favorite oak tree, one of the oldest in Rye, because it is a survivor too and keeps reaching for the sky.
And there’s still a lot of story left for Jean to tell.
