Oct. 23: Jane Dornacker, 40, the comedian and traffic reporter who was a
San Francisco celebrity before moving to New York last year, died
yesterday after her helicopter crashed into the Hudson River while she was
on the air. The pilot was critically injured. Since 1965, Dornacker has
been a 6-foot-tall Bay Area landmark. She was a homecoming queen, rock
singer, songwriter, artist, actor, a comedian and a "trafficologist" on
KFRC radio's morning show. Soon after arriving in San Francisco in 1965,
Dornacker began to establish a reputation for flamboyance. In her freshman
year at San Francisco State, she was elected homecoming queen after
touring the campus in a large birdcage. She became a prominent entertainer
in the mid-1970s at the now defunct Palms Cafe on Polk Street, where she
performed with her band Leila and the Snakes. The Tubes were impressed,
and she subsequently toured for two years with the band, which recorded
her song "Don't Touch Me There." Dornacker then struck out on her own as a
comedian. "I've got breasts, ex-husbands and menstruation - all hilarious
stuff," she once said. In 1981 she got the job that earned her the
broadest acclaim, as the "trafficologist" for KFRC. Her career hit its
peak when she played Nurse Murch in "The Right Stuff." Dornacker survived
an accident a few months ago when her copter crashed into the Hackensack
River. "I'm a strong swimmer. I swam from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park twice,
but it's different with a 2-ton helicopter strapped to your waist," she
told columnist Herb Caen. 1961