‘Walking Jane’ Carnes was known for a generous spirit and taking strolls in Charlotte
When Dahl Carnes first met his wife, Jane Carnes, it was love at first sight — even though he was at a party with another woman at the time years ago.
Dahl saw Jane across the room, he turned to his date and said, “That’s the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen.” Luckily, Jane overheard him.
On one of their first dates, Dahl brought Jane back to his apartment. They listened to an Edith Piaf record and ate scrambled eggs off his small kitchen table. She managed to overlook the simple menu and sparse furniture — “I never did ask her how,” Dahl said. They got married in 1977.
It was a love story that lasted the rest of her life. Jane Miravalle Carnes died peacefully on Saturday, Jan. 15, at Novant Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte. She was 73.
The origin of ‘Walking Jane’
Carnes graduated from Broughton High School in Raleigh and attended Methodist College in Fayetteville.
She moved to Charlotte in 1976 for a designer job at a textile company. She put down roots with Dahl in the city: the pair moved to the Olde Georgetowne neighborhood and bought a business, Selwyn Jewelers in Cotswold Village.
She was in her forties when she picked up the habit she’d become known for locally. After injuring her back in a tennis match, Jane started walking.
It started as a way to manage pain: Jane would walk around the house holding two cans of chicken noodle soup.
Then, she started walking in their courtyard, and then throughout their neighborhood. At one point, Jane went on three walks a day — morning, noon and night — averaging a total of about 15 miles a day.
The neighborhood came to know her as “Walking Jane,” and grew used to the sight of her strolling past the houses, soup cans or small weights in hand. Jane’s habit became so well known as to merit a mention in the pages of the Observer in 1994.
It was through her walks that she met almost everyone in the neighborhood, her husband said. It wasn’t unusual to see four or five others walking alongside her.
She knew the names of everyone, he said, and their pets.
The couple hosted an open house for the neighborhood every holiday season. Every year Dahl would inevitably turn to Jane, their home full of guests and ask: “Who are these people?”
Walking beyond the neighborhood
Jane was an avid member of the Junior League of Charlotte and supporter of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Senior Center, where she eventually became president of the board of directors.
She organized dinners, auctions and golf tournaments for Charlotte’s elderly population and led a craft fair where more than 300 seniors showed off their art.
She could sometimes be kind to a fault. On one business trip to New York, Dahl had to politely inform her not to hold the door open for strangers in Manhattan.
“I said ‘Jane, you can’t do that up here,’ ” he laughed. “You’re gonna be here all day opening and closing the door.”
She was less keen on the city than she was the beach, a lifelong favorite of hers. Dahl and Jane visited every summer, he said, for over 45 years. They liked the peace and quiet.
On one trip, Dahl said he caught more than 150 fish. Jane fried up every one.
They frequented Holden Beach on the North Carolina coast but occasionally ventured out to the Bahamas. At hotels, Dahl would go down to dinner first and wait.
“I never would know what she was gonna have on,” he said. “I liked to show her off.”
One last walk
Jane kept up her daily walks until her health no longer allowed her to in 2018.
She inspired others to start pounding the pavement too. After the column in the Observer, Dahl said, “we must have had a hundred people call,” saying that Jane had inspired them to get active.
After the news of Jane’s death reached her old neighborhood — the couple had moved to Merrywood on Park in 2021 — dozens of residents gathered on a few hours’ notice. They went on one last walk, in her honor.
Donations can be made the to National Kidney Foundation — North Carolina, 7413 Six Forks Rd., #255, Raleigh, NC 27615. Condolences can be made offered on McEwen Pineville Chapel’s website.
