Editing Jane Barbe

{{short description|American voice actress and singer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jane Barbe
| image = JaneBarbe.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = 
| birth_name = Millicent Jane Schneider<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2045930/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm IMDB biography]</ref>
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1928|7|29}}
| birth_place = [[Winter Haven, Florida]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2003|7|18|1928|7|29}}
| death_place = [[Roswell, Georgia]], U.S.
| occupation = Voice actress, singer
| years_active = 1963–2003
| spouse = John Barbe
}}
'''Jane Barbe''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|ɑr|b|i}} {{respell|BAR|bee}}; July 29, 1928 – July 18, 2003) was an American voice actress and singer. She was known as the "Time Lady" for the recordings she made for the [[Bell System]] and other phone companies.<ref>[[Ted Koppel|Koppel, Ted]]. "Nightline." {{YouTube|KAjb-DpBBhM|''Voice Mail Jail''}}. ABC News, 1996. News Program. [[American Broadcasting Company]]. September 18, 1996.</ref><ref>[[David Lazarus]]. ''[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-aug-29-fi-lazarus29-story.html "Time of day calling it quits at AT&T"]''. [[Los Angeles Times]]. August 29, 2007.</ref> The ubiquity of her recordings eventually made her a pop culture figure,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080221105636/https://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/archrndwn/2002/mar/020330.waitwait.html "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" radio appearance] (archived from https://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/archrndwn/2002/mar/020330.waitwait.html)</ref> and her death drew national attention.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Famous Phone Voice Obit|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1369791|access-date=2021-06-13|website=NPR.org|language=en}}</ref>

== Career ==
Barbe was born '''Millicent Jane Schneider''' in [[Winter Haven, Florida]], and raised in [[Atlanta]], Georgia. She studied [[drama]] at the [[University of Georgia]].

After graduating, Barbe worked as a [[Copywriting|copywriter]], though due to her poor spelling, she opted to read her first [[Advertising|commercial]] out loud to her boss instead of submitting it in writing. He asked her to record the commercial herself. In 1963, she began recording messages for the [[Audichron Company]], announcing [[time]], [[temperature]] and [[weather]], as well as recordings for early [[voicemail]] systems.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Time Lady|url=http://www.etcia.com/barbe/timelady.html|access-date=2021-06-13|website=www.etcia.com}}</ref> In the 1970s and 1980s, she regularly recorded the [[intercept message]]s used when a number is disconnected or misdialed, and started sharing recording duties with [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]] voice [[Pat Fleet]] in 1981, who eventually took over Barbe's role.

Barbe was selected to be the first voice on the Octel Communications voicemail systems and retained that role for many years. Her voice was used on all the prompts (which numbered in the thousands). People often referred to the voice on Octel systems as "Jane", and Barbe and her husband John were named honorary life employees of Octel in 1992. Over 150&nbsp;million people used Octel systems prior to the company being acquired in 1997 by [[Lucent]]. By 2000, Barbe's voice was heard by about 300&nbsp;million people each week. Through the years, Barbe's voice became well known through the [[telephone company|phone companies]]' use of her recordings, as well as her messages recorded for customized greetings for various corporations who bought Octel voicemail systems. The time announcements she recorded for NBS (now [[NIST]]) are still used on radio station [[WWVH]]. Her voice was also heard on hotel wake-up calls and commercial elevator messages.

Recordings with her voice are also used in [[Hong Kong]], [[Saudi Arabia]], and other countries. Although her native [[dialect]] was [[Southern American English|Southern]], she learned to adopt her trademark "[[General American]]" speech while studying drama. When asked to record 1,500 time and temperature messages for [[Telstra|Telecom Australia]], she perfected an [[Australian English|Australian accent]] by listening to recordings of [[Australia]]n speakers.

==Other work==
Barbe was also a former professional singer, meeting her husband while touring with the [[Buddy Morrow|Buddy Morrow Orchestra]], and gained a bit of notoriety in later years, appearing in commercials and on television shows based on her recognition as the "Time Lady". As a result of her extensive work, she was an early member and a board member of the Atlanta branch of the [[American Federation of Television and Radio Artists]].

Barbe and her husband created several hundred singing commercials (jingles). She performed on many of them. She also did voice-over work on TV and films, including the voice of Southern author [[Margaret Mitchell]] in the 1988 documentary ''The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind''.

On September 26, 2015, both she and her husband were inducted into the [[Georgia Music Hall of Fame]].

==Death==
Barbe died from [[cancer]] in [[Roswell, Georgia]], on July 18, 2003. She was 74 years old, 11 days short of her 75th birthday. She was survived by her husband John Barbe, her daughter Susan Stubin, her son [[David Barbe]], and seven grandchildren.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.etcia.com/barbe/timelady.html Information from Electronic Tele-Communications, Inc.]
* [https://telephoneworld.org/telephone-sounds/miscellaneous-telephone-sounds-recordings/ The Jane Barbe Collection] from Telephone World
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070612121817/http://www.porticus.org/bell/recordedannouncements.html Jane Barbe sample recordings]
* {{IMDb name|id=2045930}}
* {{YouTube|4F8fRqCkF5Y|Video medley mash up of famous Jane Barbe recorded announcements}}.
* {{YouTube|KAjb-DpBBhM|Video of telephone voices Pat Fleet and Jane Barbe}}.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101127093410/http://patfleet.com/audio/party_time.mp3 Rare outtake recording of Jane Barbe] from PatFleet.com.
* {{Find a Grave|8096189}}

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
|title=Voice of [[AT&T Inc.|AT&T]]
|years=1 January 1963 – 1 January 1984
|before=[[Mary Moore (voice actor)|Mary Moore]]
|after=[[Pat Fleet]]
|}}
{{s-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbe, Jane}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:American voice actresses]]
[[Category:Bell System]]
[[Category:Actresses from Atlanta]]
[[Category:People from Winter Haven, Florida]]
[[Category:University of Georgia alumni]]
[[Category:People from Roswell, Georgia]]
[[Category:Telephone voiceover talent]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:20th-century American singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women singers]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]