Heroes: Jeannie Kauffman – Singer/Songwriter of Hope

IN MEMORIAM: TMF shares our love and admiration for Jeannie Kauffman, a courageous singer/songwriter and longtime friend, as she moves on after passing away February 7, 2008 following her courageous battle of 27 months with a brain tumor.

Thank you Jeannie, for showing us all the joy and hope that comes from a quality of life well-lived.  To post a message to her guestbook, go straight to Jeannie’s Cure.

Jeannie Kauffman is a true hero, transforming her own brain cancer ordeal into an opportunity to help and inspire others through her music.

Jeannie with daughter Berkley.

“I have never been happier.”  Jeannie had spoken those very words, reflecting on the wonderful state of her life, just days before the crushing diagnosis of a brain tumor.  Her day job in sales was flourishing.  Nights found her performing her songs at coffeehouses around Los Angeles, California in the hopes of making it big in the music biz.  And most importantly, she was finally enjoying being a mom to daughter Berkley, after years of trying for a child with partner Jen.

Then, on October 25, 2005, Jeannie’s world turned upside down.  An MRI revealed a golf ball-sized brain tumor as the cause of her recent headaches.  Jeannie was scheduled for surgery immediately.  Stunned, but determined, she pulled out a picture of her two-year-old and said, “This is what I am fighting for.”  From that moment forward, Jeannie set out to be a miracle story.

Surgery confirmed the worst.  Jeannie had glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.  Undeterred, within days of her own surgery, she headed out to the Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, to play her songs for the young patients there…the first of many selfless occasions along Jeannie’s journey.

Meanwhile, Jen began building the website that would launch Jeannie’s Cure (www.JeanniesCure.org), to raise money for brain cancer research.  Fundraising events were planned and held.  Money started to pour in.  Jeannie’s long-time music idol and cancer survivor, Melissa Etheridge, even put in a call to Jeannie to show her support.

Still, Jeannie worried that brain cancer, radiation and chemo would steal her musical gifts – her authentic, beautiful voice and the songs that often “just appeared” in her head.  By the spring, she could no longer carry a tune.  Then, miraculously, during the Jeannie’s Cure Casino Night planning week, she woke up in the middle of the night with a song in her head.  She hurriedly fumbled in the dark to find her guitar, and began to play.   It was an inspirational moment.  The song delivered in an hour of darkness would become her anti-cancer anthem:  “All In For a Cure.”

Jeannie performs her song, “All In For a Cure,” at the 2006 Tug McGraw Foundation Celebrity Gala.

Jeannie’s voice was back in action.  She played her songs at fundraiser meetings, 5K runs, rallies, and even at the memorials of fellow brain tumor warriors whom she had befriended along the way.  No matter how sick she felt, sometimes barely able to stand after a rough chemo treatment, she would selflessly take the stage and inspire others to keep fighting.

That summer of ‘06, Jeannie headed back east, receiving a hero’s welcome.  Her Wallingford, Connecticut high school classmates had organized a Jeannie’s Cure benefit in her honor.  Late in the evening, Jeannie stood up to the mike and sang her heart out.  As the cheering crowd rose to their feet, there wasn’t a dry eye in the hall.  Classmate Jason Jeremiah was so moved that he gave Jeannie his treasured Ovation guitar the next day, explaining that it would give him no greater joy than to know it would be playing her songs.  Little did either of them know that her new guitar would soon have an exciting debut. 

Turns out, another classmate, Jeanne Hogan, was also so touched that she shared Jeannie’s story with the Tug McGraw Foundation.  It wasn’t long before TMF’s president, Jennifer Brusstar, flew out to meet Jeannie and her medical team and to tour UCLA’s Neuro-Oncology unit.  As they headed back to the parking garage, Jeannie grabbed her guitar out of the trunk, sat down on the fender, and played “All In For a Cure.”  Jennifer said, “You have got to perform at our next celebrity gala.”  And so, Jennifer gave Jeannie a gift no one will ever forget.

The achievements from all those years working the music circuit –  the finalist slot for Lilith Fair, the appearance on VH-1 – pale in comparison to Jeannie’s joy in performing at the Tug McGraw Foundation Celebrity Gala on November 3, 2006.  While she shared the star-studded stage with Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Trick Pony, and Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish fame, Jeannie was the real celebrity that night.  Triumphantly, she rocked the house with her gutsy performance, while still tenderly motioning to the Uhrmacher family in the front row, who after a brave battle that ended just days earlier, would have been celebrating their little Hannah’s seventh birthday that very night.  Bob Costas request for another round of applause was answered after he shared Jeannie’s story of hope, and her never-wavering attitude in the face of incredible odds. 

Despite helping raise over $160,000 for brain cancer research, suffering tumor regrowth in January 2007, undergoing two more brain surgeries, more radiation and chemo, enduring the emotional break with her partner, and now, experiencing the failing of her body from the effects of this difficult disease, Jeannie’s spirit is as strong as ever.  Her clever wit and trademark humor still surprise and delight family and the many friends who travel from across the country to be by her side. 

In the bittersweet reality of her journey, Jeannie can no longer hold her guitar, nor carry a tune with the strength of only months ago.  And yet the miracle of her music lives on – through the lyrics and recordings of her songs, the photos and footage of her performances, and most of all, through the people whose lives she has deeply touched. 

The special spirit that still shines through Jeannie’s bright blue eyes is best exemplified by a song that came into her head years before she ever knew what lie ahead, recorded a cappella in her clear sweet voice, singing of truth – “The God Song.”

“The God Song”
© 2001, Jeannie Kauffman

God wipe away my tears
Hold me in your arms
Light the path that I'll walk with you and won't you keep me safe from harm?

Yet if harm should come my way
If that's what you have in store
I'll heal in time and I'll come to find that I love you even more.

God release this pain
And hold me in your love
Help me know you're right inside me and not somewhere far above.

And God remove my doubts
That I may live in truth
When people look into my eyes won't you help them to see you?

God help me do the same
So I will recognize
That you're in every one of us and I'll see you in their eyes.

Because God is all there is.
I know God is all there is.

I claim this truth for me and you, I know God is all there is.