Singer, songwriter and stage actress Jayne White died at her Marysville home Tuesday at the untimely age of 40 after a short, fierce battle with cancer.

A more complete obituary can be found in the Sacramento Bee.

If epitaphs were still being written, Jaynie White's surely would be: "Born to belt; died too soon."

As a performer Jaynie had an indefatigable personality and a voice larger than life. Notes issuing from her throat ranged in the space of a few bars from raucous to rueful to tender and back again to tough.

One night, listening in the wings to White singing "Small World" in a performance of Gypsy, a cast mate wondered in a whisper, "Where does that voice come from, and where will it go when the audience leaves tonight?"

A chronicle was kept of Ponderosa Theater Company's making of Gypsy. See it here. A few quotes from it give a tiny impression of White's force and talent.

Born to belt, Jaynie White is giving it her all at every rehearsal, proving her voice and spirit to be stronger than Bette Midler, both in this part and in this song. Listen to Jaynie, and every performance is like opening night.

Jaynie bore celebrity comparisons well, and wore them lightly.

She continues to amaze. Liza Minelli was on David Letterman last night. She sang, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” and didn’t sound anywhere near as good as Jaynie., which came as something of a shock. Hollywood has America hyped to think that what Tinseltown offers is the top of the crop, but seeing and hearing talent like Jaynie's shakes the foundation of claims like that.

Seeing Jaynie White up there belting out the songs, throwing in a couple of off-hand dance steps, acting narratively in between the song lines, makes one reflect on the fundamental nature of talent, luck and timing.

There is a moment during the finale when Jaynie half sings, half speaks as Rose that she was “born too early and started too late.” One has to wonder whether there might not be more than a little autobiography floating in there somewhere between the notes, You know, one of those bittersweet tales of a little girl born in West Noplace, C-A gifted with an uncontainable voice and a wide dream that all too soon becomes narrowed and stifled and relegated to a hope chest in the attic so she may meet the immediate short-term interests and needs of others, some of whom she loves.

If that were so, and if Jaynie White sang rock ‘n’ roll, then her anthem – maybe – should be Janis Joplin’s, “Get It While You Can."

Shortly after Gypsy closed, but before the terrible news about he illness was revealed, the chronicler ran into Jaynie in a store and the two chatted briefly. She mentioned "Gypsy Journal" and laughed, saying some of his observations had been true, but some had not.

"Everything but the hope chest," Jaynie said. "I'm perfectly happy where I am."

That being so, then it seems Jaynie White likely out-did Joplin, and indeed, got it while she could.