Jerry M. Lowe

Jerry M. Lowe passed away April 27, 2023, in Florence, Ky. He was born Feb. 7, 1942, to Cecil and Carmen Moon Lowe. A graduate of Blytheville High School, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University and a doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was an assistant director at WGN-TV before becoming executive director of Radio, Television, and Film of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago. He returned to his love of theater, heading drama programs at The Joseph Sears School in Kenilworth and Hershey High School in Arlington Heights, Ill. He was chosen to stage his adaptation of two short stories by Pulitzer Prize-winner Eudora Welty when the University of Illinois presented her an honorary doctorate.

Also an actor at numerous professional theaters, Jerry was artistic director of the Players Guild of Canton, Ohio, and Downtown Theatre Classics in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and collaborators Susan and Philip Kern adapted the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a musical. It has been produced in theaters around the country.

Deeply religious, Jerry served Christ Church Cathedral, Cincinnati, as a choir member, lay reader, head verger, and presenter of a number of his specially developed programs.

Jerry was preceded in death by his parents and daughter Laura Lowe. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, JaNoel Smith Lowe. They loved traveling, going to theater and concerts, listening to jazz, joking about shared books and movies, and crafting. Other survivors are sister-in-law Margaret Lowe and niece Jennifer Lowe of Ann Arbor, Mich., and nephews, Rob Lowe (Laura) of Naples, Fla., and Frederick Lowe (Catherine) of Chicago. Online condolences may be expressed at www.newcomercincinnati.com.