Jane and Bernard Reeble

Call it fate perhaps, but the Emporia community is most fortunate that Barney and Jane Reeble called Emporia their home. The Reebles, through the Reeble Foundation, have benefitted many Emporians and local organizations with generous bequests over the years.

Jane Hanna Reeble and her late husband, Bernard K. (Barney) Reeble, both native Emporians with the love for the Emporia Community dear to their hearts, established the Reeble Foundation in 1996. And today Jane Reeble in her continued direction of the Foundation exemplifies this dedication to
support charitable and economic endeavors in the community with emphasis on children and education needs.

Barney Reeble, a successful grocer and businessman, established the Reeble Foundation to ensure their legacy would be committed to the benevolences they were interested in. After his death in 2005, Jane Reeble has carried on this commitment and now has established a fund with the Emporia Community Foundation to administer assets of the Foundation. By her action the Reeble Foundation will continue to benefit the community into the future carrying on its charitable objectives for many years.

“The Emporia Community Foundation is pleased to welcome the Reeble Foundation and is privileged to administer the assets as directed by Mrs. Reeble”, Ken Calhoun, CEO of the Board of Directors said in 2012, “We appreciate the confidence she has in ECF and now Mrs. Reeble is assured the Reeble Foundation will continue to benefit the community in perpetuity.”

Jane graduated from Emporia High School in 1948 and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1952. Both in high school and college Jane was active in many organizations.

While at KU, Jane was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. Campus activities were many and after college she spent 15 years teaching school – all in the secondary grades, but never in Emporia.

Here in Emporia she has been an active member of various groups in the community and attends the First Congregational Church. Jane enjoys her responsibility in directing the Reeble Foundation and she takes an active interest in researching and evaluating the community organizations which are eligible beneficiaries. Now she can look to ECF in this regard as she continues to direct the Reeble Foundation for the betterment of the Emporia community.

What a wonderful thing that Barney and Jane, native Emporians, were such philanthropic individuals.