Jan C Snow's Obituary
Jan C. Snow (1942-2025) Artist, Composer, Humorist, and Beloved Community Voice
Jan C. Snow, a radiant force in Cleveland’s artistic and literary landscape, died on September 25, 2025, in Cleveland, Ohio. She was 83.
Born to Charles D. Snow and Janet Ann (née Pfeil) on May 29, 1942, Jan grew up in a household where music and creativity were woven into daily life. That early immersion blossomed into a lifelong vocation: Jan became a composer, poet, author, visual artist, and radio personality whose work celebrated community, challenged convention, and uplifted the human spirit.
Jan was the mother of Dan Bogo (Elizabeth) and Mike Bogo (Michele), sister to Judy Carrigan (Jay, deceased) and Skip Snow (Susan), cherished grandmother to Holly, Martha, Samantha, Charlie, and Joey, and aunt to Sean, Becky, Ben, Lizzy, and great aunt to five. Her chosen family included Kevin Beaver, Kelly Camlin, Karen Frank, Leslie Kuba, Melody Luepke, Jean McKeon, Karla Rivers, Heather Russell, Argerie Vasilakes, Karen Weaver (deceased), and Martha Williams. She was a treasured friend to countless many, and her warmth, wit, and wisdom left an indelible mark on all who knew her.
As Windsong, Cleveland’s Feminist Chorus, shared in the program notes to their 2017 concert “Words Noted,” Jan’s music is “beautiful and intricate even when her words are biting.” From 2009 to 2020, she served as Windsong’s resident composer, crafting choral works that gave voice to women’s resilience, economic struggle, and joy. Her compositions -- such as “Women Carry the Water,” “Loaded Language,” and “Let Peace Prevail” -- were often ardent and pointed calls to action. Her original compositions and her choral arrangements of others’ songs, such as “Girls and Airplanes,” by Anne E. DeChant, and “Away Ye Merry Lassies,” by Otter, were sung by feminist choirs around the country. In 2023 her commissioned composition, “Walking Each Other Home,” was performed at The Sister Singers Festival by a mass chorus of more than 150 singers from throughout Ohio.
Jan’s voice also reached national audiences through her syndicated radio feature, Marginal Considerations, which aired on WCLV 104.9 FM and nearly 150 other stations across the country for many years until 2018. Her essays, often humorous and whimsical, turned everyday objects -- bathtubs, rutabagas, pockets -- into portals for reflection and laughter. She authored several books, including You May Already Be a Winner and Other Marginal Considerations, The Nonexistence of Rutabagas and Other Marginal Considerations, and A Natural History of Socks, illustrated by the late Eric May.
Her fiber artwork included hand-dyed, sewn and quilted pieces, which were as intricate, colorful and masterfully created as her watercolors and oil paintings.
A gifted instrumentalist, Jan played the hammered dulcimer and piano, and was equally at home knitting, kayaking, hiking, and tending her native garden. She found joy in the ordinary and meaning in the overlooked. Her artistic philosophy -- “Music is for everyone to participate in” -- was shaped by early mentors and deepened by her collaboration with choral legend Alice Parker, who once told her, “The human voice is sacred.”
Jan’s legacy is one of courage, creativity, and community. She reminded us that “the will to act is itself a renewable resource,” and she lived that truth with grace and grit.
A private interment will be conducted in Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland. A public celebration of Jan’s life and work will be held this Spring.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Windsong, Cleveland’s Feminist Chorus at https://windsongcleveland.org/donate, P. O. Box 771212, Lakewood, OH 44107. Please mark “Jan C. Snow” in the online instructions or on your check’s memo line to earmark your donation to a fund in her name for new choral composition commissions.
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