Jane Renfroe Sampey was born on July 26, 1929 in Birmingham, Ala. to John Richard Sampey, Jr. (1896-1967) and Jewell (Cheatham) Sampey (1903-2001).

Her grandfather, John R. Sampey, Sr. was a missionary, teacher, and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky 1929-1942. He also served as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1936-1938.

Her father, John R. Sampey Jr., served in WWI as a lieutenant of infantry and in WWII as a lieutenant colonel in the Inspector General’s Department, retiring as a full Army colonel. He taught at Howard College, Birmingham, Ala. for ten years, and then headed the Chemistry department at Furman University from 1934-1949. He retired in 1949 after suffering a stroke, but continued to do research, writing over 400 articles in professional scientific journals about the treatment of cancer and about religious subjects in religious publications. He died of a heart attack on October 24, 1967.

Jane Sampey graduated with honors from Furman University in 1951 with a BA in English before receiving her MA in English literature from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (1959). She went on to spend twenty-four years teaching English and American Literature, five years in North Carolina and Georgia and eighteen at the American College for Girls at Robert’s College in Istanbul, Turkey. During her time in Turkey, Jane Sampey served as assistant editor of Crossroads: The World of Islam magazine and won the Turkish Daily News “The Face of Turkey” writing contest. She wrote sixteen published articles and poems in addition to four unpublished manuscripts about Turkey. During these years, she traveled to thirty-three countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She returned to the United States to teach for a year in New Jersey before retiring to spend eight years as a tour guide in New York City.

Sampey passed away on July 30, 2002 in Greenville.