Margaret Jane I. Davis Sine passed away peacefully at age 90 on November 10, 2023, on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Jane lived a life of music, learning, teaching, and sharing her infectious love of the arts with all around her throughout her life. She discovered joy in music as a high school student in Meadville, Penn., where she learned to play the double bass and spent several summers studying at the prestigious Chautauqua School of Music. Jane attended Smith College (class of ‘55), studying music, history, dance, and English literature. She was also a champion debater and put this talent to good use throughout her life.

Jane enjoyed a career as a popular middle school music teacher, first as a substitute teacher in the Newtown, Conn. public school system, then going on to teach string instruments in the Fairfield, Conn. public school system until her retirement in the mid-1990s. During that time Jane enjoyed regularly attending summer concerts at Tanglewood and Carnegie Hall, plus ballet and opera performances. She later took on a second career as a music agent, representing the legendary double bassist Gary Karr and many others, travelling around the globe to attend concerts and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

Jane spent four years living in South America in the early 1970s with her then husband, the late John J. Davis, living in Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. She enthusiastically embraced the experience, learning Spanish and engaging with the classical music scene in both cities. She and John put their private pilot licenses to good use, flying throughout Argentina in a single engine plane and enjoying the beauty of the country. The return of Juan Perón forced a return to the US, with Jane and John bravely flying across the Andes and up the western coast of South and Central America to return home.

Jane met and then married Philip Sine in the late 1990s and together they shared their love of teaching, serving as instructors in LifeLong Learning programs in Waterbury, Conn. and New York City, N.Y. and Hilton Head Island, S.C. Her popular classes were a synthesis of musical insights, the life and times of a composer(s), from Mozart to Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. One never knew when Jane would break out into song to highlight a musical passage or theme, much to the delight of her many students.

In addition to teaching, Jane and Phil enjoyed cruising the world together over the years, visiting Iceland, many parts of Europe, and sailing all around South America.

Jane is survived by her most beloved husband Philip Sine of New York City and Hilton Head Island, S.C., her partner in teaching, learning, and living a happy, full life. She also leaves behind her three children and their spouses, Curtis E. Titus and wife Vivian Titus, Margaret A. Titus and husband Gaku Ashiba, Pamela J. Titus-Boyd and husband Bradley Boyd; and her treasured grandchildren Sarah C. Titus, Conner Boyd and Emmett Boyd; and great-granddaughter Lila Jane Prasad. Jane also leaves behind her stepchildren, Su Gilmour and Chris Martin, Arthur Sine and Stephanie Sine.

A memorial service will be held at Island Funeral Home on November 29 at 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Jane’s memory to the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation or the Audubon Society. Islandfuneralhome.com.