Janice Marie Pope Kirklin

Born January 26, 1931, in Birmingham, Alabama, Jan later met her forever sweetheart Joe (William Joseph Kirklin) at Alabama’s Livingston College and married him a few years later. Jan and Joe have been married 61 years. Jan caught Joe’s eye looking beautiful in her pretty red dress, while he was working the cafeteria line at college. Not long after, they began building an ongoing relationship of teamwork, selflessness, and caring, and instilled these values in their family and everyone they encountered. Jan and Joe led family and friends all their years together even while moving from Alabama, to California, and then to Florida where they have lived since 1959.

Jan gained satisfaction through sharing her natural talents of nurturing, inspiring, caring for, and loving people. In addition to doing this for her family and friends, she shared these talents with school children while she was a teacher and with business relations formed through her role as President of the family owned business, Winner Auto Center.

Jan graduated from Alabama’s Talladega High School in 1950. After her marriage to Joe in 1952, she had four children, Pam Smith (1954), Karen Price (1956-2012), Cindy Hilburn (1958), and Will Kirklin (1961). In 1977 the first of her 11 WONDERFUL grandchildren was born.

Jan loved God and her family!! She was big hearted, loving, humble, unassuming, tenacious, trustworthy, loved to laugh, energized by shopping for others, creative, innovative, visionary, and always available to meet other needs even when their procrastination called for last minute heroics by Jan. She had a variety of interests. She took pleasure spending time with family and caring for family, attending church, encouraging others by attending their life events (dance, ballgames, school events, church events, …), sewing, creating porcelain dolls, ceramics, seeking out bargains, and assisting with any project that came her way.

Jan is survived by her Husband; three of four Children; her children’s partners, Jim Smith, Steve Price, Dan Hilburn, and Dawn Holmes; 11 Grandchildren; 6 Great Grandchildren with the 7th to arrive in January; and several Nieces and Nephews.

** Please join with us in wearing Jan’s favorite color (Red) or any other color of happiness at Jan’s Celebration of Life **

Jan’s visitation and viewing will be held Saturday, November 2, 2013, from 5:00pm – 7:00pm at Wylie-Baxley Merritt Island Funeral Home, 1360 N Courtenay Pkwy, Merritt Island, FL 32953, 321-452-6565. Her Celebration of Life services will be held at 2:00pm, Sunday, November 3, 2013, at Rockledge Church of the Nazarene, 651 Barnes Blvd, Rockledge, FL. Burial will be at Florida Memorial Gardens, 5950 U.S. 1 Rockledge, FL 32955, (321) 636-5054 immediately following Celebration of Life service.