Janice (Taylor) Connors 

1937 - 1998
A Tribute to Jan Connors
My Sister Janice

   When we were growing up, we were known as the Taylor girls, but Janice was the one people always remembered. She had the kind of personality that made an impression on people. It's easy to picture her featured as one of Reader’s Digest's "Most Unforgettable Characters." She had a feistiness that others enjoyed. She was a woman of strong opinions, and she did not mind sharing them with or defending them to anyone.

Jan was the most tender-hearted of journalists. Her stories on a sick or abused child would make her cry as well as the reader. She loved animals and was tender-hearted towards them as well. Even when she grew plants, she did not want to thin them out, to have to end the life of some small seedling.

Jan's interest and talent in science was admirable. She applied her considerable intelligence to all matters in the world, indeed the universe, for she loved to learn about distant galaxies. She was an interesting, vital, kind person.

Jan loved music deeply and passionately. But most of all she loved her son John and his family.

Dear Sister, Mother, Grandmother, Friend, Neighbor, Colleague, we shall all miss you terribly.  

Jean E. Miller
March 10, 1998

A Tribute to a Friend
Goodbye, Jan, and thank you

"You gave so much and knew not that you gave at all."

That summer holiday when tragedy stalked into a still house on a quiet street,

When police covered the area with guns and sirens, and you waited for their story with your pen and pad,

When you drove the stunned widow and crying children to your home because they had to leave the murder site,

When you called John David to bring Similac from the hospital for the baby's formula and buy hot dogs and buns for the children's lunch,

When you called the family's relatives for the numb widow,

When you encouraged the older children to play with your cats and doodle on your piano to keep them occupied,

When you drove the family back home after the murderer had been arrested, and put the children to bed,

When you stayed all night to comfort the dazed widow, and dozed in a chair until the relatives began to arrive in the early morning,

"You gave so much and knew not that you gave at all."

Goodbye Jan, and thank you.

That grateful widow
-- 30 --
(from The Call-Leader, Thursday, March 12, 1998)