Jeanne Adams Daniels was born Jeanne Yvonne Adams on February 1, 1932, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA -- the 10th of 11 children to the late Lorenzo Ralph Adams born in Walkers Mill, Pennsylvania and Sadie Marie Wilson Adams born in Rochester, New York. Jeanne Yvonne Adams believed family was very important. Her grandparents had Cuban, Jamaican, Canadian, and Black African heritage. Her father was a symphony pianist and played the coronet.

Jeanne was an extremely smart woman who loved school and fully embraced education. Jeanne graduated from Schenley High School in Pittsburgh in 1949. Despite racism and discrimination that often prevented African Americans from accessing higher education, Jeanne became the only one of her siblings to finish college.  She received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1953 and a Master of Education in 1957 from the University of Pittsburgh. Jeanne was a member of the Graduate Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and became the first Black business education teacher in the city of Pittsburgh. 

In 1957 as well, Jeanne married the love of her life, the late Joseph Wayne Daniels, Sr. of New Orleans, Louisiana. The couple migrated to Brooklyn, NY, where Joe, Sr. continued his work with the Federal Government and Jeanne taught in the Brooklyn, New York public school system. A few years later, the couple had their first-born son, Joseph Wayne Daniels, Jr. (Joey) in Pittsburgh, PA and then moved to Philadelphia, PA one year later. While Joe, Sr. worked in different capacities at Bell Telephone, the U.S. Postal Service and as an insurance salesman while going to school full time at Lincoln University in Oxford, PA, Jeanne taught business education and shorthand at West Philadelphia High School in the Philadelphia public school system.  Many of Jeanne’s students went on to great success. 

About ten years later, while living in the Philadelphia area, Joe and Jeanne had their second-born daughter, Jeanne Marie Daniels. Then one year later, the family moved to Silver Spring, MD, outside the Washington, DC area when Joe was offered a very high- level job in Equal Employment Opportunity for the Federal Government.  Jeanne proceeded to continue her career as a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring until she would step away from full-time teaching to pursue other endeavors.   

Jeanne led a full life as a wife, mother, business consultant (establishing her own consulting business, JAD Associates), teacher, administrative assistant, secretary (including at one point early in her career as Secretary to the Dean, School of Religion, Howard University in Washington, D.C.) and a college instructor.  During this time in her life, Jeanne’s faith in God grew.  In 1982, she established the Kemp Mill Bible Study, her own neighborhood Bible discussion group.  She developed and taught in a Biblical study program at the Northeastern Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. from 1985 to 1992.  

In this season of her life, Jeanne experienced a call of God to ministry.  She heeded that call and enrolled in Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., where she earned a Master of Divinity degree in May, 1988. Soon thereafter, she founded Crossroads: A Ministry of Reconciliation, a non-profit education ministry, and completed the process for ordination as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church USA in August 1988.  

After her daughter, Jeanne Daniels Glover, joined Emory United Methodist Church in 1993, where her son, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Wayne Daniels, Jr. is Senior Pastor, Rev. Jeanne Adams Daniels faithfully taught the Thursday Morning Bible Study class for adults and seniors and ministered to many people through Emory’s ministry to the homeless and disenfranchised.  From 1995 to 1999, she pastored the wonderful people of Community Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Virginia. She would later become a  Parish Associate at Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church.  Jeanne’s passionate interest in the Gospel of John and Transforming Communities Through Bible Study led to a pursuit of the Doctor of Ministry degree at the Howard University School of Divinity. Jeanne graduated in May 2000, and became a lifetime member of the Biblical Institute for Social Change, founded by Rev. Dr. Cain Hope Felder.

Rev. Dr. Jeanne Adams Daniels received the Eboné Image Award in appreciation of outstanding contributions in community outreach from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc, NOVA Chapter in May, 2001. She honorably retired from the Presbyterian Church USA in 2002.  

Though “retired,” Jeanne never retired. She could be found teaching the seniors Bible study at Emory United Methodist Church, teaching Bible study and life lessons to people who were homeless, alcoholics or marginalized and disenfranchised on the streets of Washington, DC, particularly at Georgia Avenue and Rittenhouse Street, NW.  She led many to life transformation in Jesus Christ and quickly was given the nickname, “Mother Daniels.” She was revered. One did not mess with Mother Daniels. She was deeply loved, and the community watched out for her. 

Her love of God, her incredible devotion to her family, her intense passion for teaching, her amazing love and passion for people and the Church were infectious.  She poured her entire being into these things until, on Saturday afternoon, December 10, 2022, God called her home. 

Jeanne Adams Daniels is survived by her son, Joseph Wayne Daniels, Jr. (Madelyn), her daughter, Jeanne Marie Daniels Glover, five grandchildren; Joia Rachele Daniels, Clifford Burnett Glover III (Opeyemi), Joseph Wayne Daniels, III (Tiffany), Isaiah Aaron Glover, and Kobina Robert Orleans-Pobee; three great grandchildren; Oluwaseun Xavier Glover, Adesayo James Glover, and Emory Kaye Rachele Daniels; and a host of nieces, nephews, church family and friends. 

You have fought the good fight, graceful warrior!  Enter your eternal rest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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