Jeanne B. Volk, a mezzo soprano who performed with her husband in Baltimore-area church choirs for more than 40 years, died March 20 of pancreatic cancer at Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix. She was 81.

Jeanne Bond was born in Baltimore into a musical family. Her father, mother and grandfather had studied voice at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Mrs. Volk, who held the Tiffany Voice Scholarship at the Peabody, was a 1946 graduate of Eastern High School.

After graduating from Eastern, she was hired as a soprano soloist at Christ Lutheran Church in South Baltimore, where she met and fell in love with her future husband, Philip Volk, who was tenor soloist in the church choir.

"For the next 40 years, they sang together in church choirs and concerts, spending the last 20 of those years at Immanuel Lutheran Church on Loch Raven Boulevard," said her daughter, Susan Volk Stanley of Scottsdale, Ariz.

In her early years, she also sang with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Concert Band at the old Memorial Stadium.

"After winning a statewide voice competition to find the 'Best of the Best in Baltimore,' she was awarded an appearance on Ed Sullivan's 'Toast of the Town,' a CBS TV show in 1954, with Victor Borge accompanying her," her daughter said.

"In spite of her early enormous success, she was a modest, unpretentious person who was content to be a devoted mother and homemaker and sharing her gift and love of traditional church music with congregations large and small," Mrs. Stanley said.

The former resident of the Hampton neighborhood of Baltimore County moved to Phoenix, Ariz., in 1994.

Services in Phoenix are private.

In addition to her husband and daughter, survivors include a son, Robert P. Volk of Phoenix, Ariz.; and two grandchildren.