lit a candle 2h agoI keep trying to remember where I first saw her, might have been on some public television thing out here in California back in the 90s, one of those late night bluegrass hours nobody records anymore. My husband liked her more than I did honestly but I sat through plenty of it with a cup of tea and it grew on me. Anyway. 67.
Their story
Jeanie Poling was a San Francisco bluegrass and country singer and guitarist who, with her husband Chuck Poling, spent more than four decades at the centre of the city's traditional acoustic music circuit. Born in 1959 and raised on Long Island, she moved to San Francisco at 19. Chuck, a…
Jeanie Poling was a San Francisco bluegrass and country singer and guitarist who, with her husband Chuck Poling, spent more than four decades at the centre of the city's traditional acoustic music circuit. Born in 1959 and raised on Long Island, she moved to San Francisco at 19. Chuck, a San Francisco native, became her musical and life partner. Together they performed as Jeanie and Chuck and earlier as Jeanie and Chuck's Country Roundup: she on guitar and lead vocal, he on mandolin, often sharing one microphone in cowboy hat and boots. Friends compared their stance to classic Grand Ole Opry duos.
For about twenty years the couple hosted a weekly Bluegrass Country Jam at the Plough and Stars in the Inner Richmond, a room that stopped only when the pandemic closed venues. They also appeared with Chickwagon Junction and BettyJacks, played Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2002 when the festival was still called Strictly Bluegrass, and kept working farmers markets, street fairs, church halls and Irish bars. Chuck later wrote for the California Bluegrass Association and served as an area vice president. Jeanie's gift, peers said, was a powerful voice that could quiet a room and a generosity that boosted other musicians' confidence. The CBA memorial recalled the twinkle in her eye when the music was thriving and praised a relationship with music free of ego hangups.
In January 2023 she was diagnosed with two rare cancers. She left a city job, underwent surgery and chemotherapy, and kept performing under the shortened billing Jeanie and Chuck, including a July 2026 date with Chickwagon Junction at the Redwood Ramble. Chuck later said she had been so brave that many friends assumed she could fight off everything. Coverage around her death noted that her final months were not defined solely by illness; she stayed visible on the small stages that had always been home.
She died on 26 August 2026 at UCSF Health Stanyan Hospital of pneumonia after that three-and-a-half-year fight. She was 67. The San Francisco Chronicle reported the death on 10 September; the California Bluegrass Association published an in memoriam on 15 September, days before Hardly Strictly Bluegrass returned to Golden Gate Park without her. She is survived by Chuck and their children Isabel and Reuben (and Reuben's wife Kat). Chuck wrote that she made all his dreams come true across 44 years of true love, calling her a wonderful mother, amazing singer and his biggest fan. San Francisco's bluegrass map, friends said, is smaller without the voice that could stop a room.
Biography adapted from San Francisco Chronicle via International Business Times Australia and Wide Open Country; California Bluegrass Association In Memoriam (Jody Richardson); Chuck Poling Facebook remembrance.
In their own words
“She passed away on August 26 from pneumonia after a three-and-a-half-year battle with cancer. She fought the good fight but knew when to throw in the towel.”
Chuck Poling, Facebook post headed MY JEANIE.
“Jeanie was a remarkable singer, with a powerful voice. She could really get a room to shut up and listen.”
Chuck Poling to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I could say so much about Jeanie but can easily sum it up by saying she made all my dreams come true.”
Chuck Poling, Facebook remembrance.
Photos
2Jeanie Poling singing into a microphone
by People Forever
Chuck and Jeanie Poling at the 2026 Father's Day Festival
by People Forever
None of us do. She kept playing right through it, that's the part that gets me.