Diving Benefactor, Community Leader Jane Moss, Dies

MOULTRIE — Colquitt Countian Jane Moss, who, along with her husband the late Robert “Moose” Moss brought competitive diving to Moultrie, died Sunday. She was 85.  Jane Austin Harding Moss literally grew up on the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where her father, the late A.A. Harding was the Hall of Fame Band Director for 43 years. Her father was a confidant of John Philip Sousa.   After college, she worked as a model for Vogue in Chicago and as a fashion designer for Hansen Glove Company of Milwaukee.   Her designs were featured in Mademoiselle, Vogue and The Chicago Tribune. When World War II broke out, she became a stewardess for American Airlines, flying charter flights with such celebrities as Abbott and Costello and Bob Feller who were marketing war bonds across the country.  After the war, she was living in Hollywood where she met her husband Moose who was returning from the Asian war theater and the famed Flying Tigers. Then it was back to Colquitt County and the farm where the couple lived the rest of their lives.   For more than 40 years, she and Moose accumulated a second family when they brought diving to the community — first for their own children and then for anyone interested in that sport. 

The couple hosted the Moss Farms Invitational Diving Meet for 20 years at their farm. Then came the construction in Moultrie of the Moose Moss Aquatic Center.  For years, the Moss lawn would be covered by tents and campers during the summers as the diving program became hailed by U.S. Diving as “one of the finest” in the country. Mrs. Moss served as the state registration chairman of Georgia Diving for many years, receiving numerous accolades from the Moultrie Recreation Department and the Moultrie YMCA.   She was feted at the annual band concert at the University of Illinois in 2003 and interviewed by the archivist for the Sousa collection which is housed in the Harding Band Building, named for her father. She cut the ribbon for the American Bandmasters Hall of Fame where her father and Sousa were charter inductees in 1979.  Mrs. Moss was a member and major benefactor of Poplar Arbor Congregational Church which she served a treasurer for many years.

Author: Staff ReportsPublication Date: 2004-12-28