Jan L. Warner, a nationally syndicated elder law columnist and a founding member of the Carolinas Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, died of cancer on October 27, 2009, in Columbia, South Carolina. He was 67.
Warner was a founding partner of the Columbia and Rock Hill law firm of ElderLaw Services of South Carolina, P.A./Warner, Payne and Black, L.L.P.
After launching a column on divorce issues called “Flying Solo” with writer Jan Collins 20 years ago, Warner and Collins teamed up again in the late 1990s to start an elder law column called”Next Steps.” Both columns are syndicated by United Media (United Features Syndicate). Warner and Collins also wrote a book called Next Steps (Linden, 2009), which was published in August.
“Everything Jan did he did with great zeal,” his partner Mitchell Payne said in an article on Warner published in The State, a Columbia newspaper. “He seemed to be able to do everything at once.”
“Jan was my law partner for over 10 years, but of much more importance to me he was my friend for almost 20,” Payne said. “A friend I lost way too soon, and whose insight and wisdom I will sorely miss. Jan was an eternal optimist, and a never-ending source of new ideas and new perspectives.”
“He was wonderful, very funny and very smart,” his writing partner Collins told The State. “We got to be good friends.”
Warner had recently been appointed an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Neuropsychology at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, where he assisted teaching residents and physicians about dealing with elderly and geriatric patients. He was a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the American Bar Association, and the South Carolina Bar Association.
Warner is survived by his wife, Vicki Shuford Warner, and five children.
Memorial messages may be sent to the family at www.bullockfuneralhome.com
To read the article on Warner in The State, click here.
To read The State’s obituary for Warner, click here.