Janet was born on November 26, 1927 in Pocatello, Idaho to Megnild Bundlie Harper and Edwin Sage Harper.
She had three brothers, Edwin Martin, Howard Hugh, and Richard Sage Harper. At the age of 12, she moved to Twin Falls where she attended Twin Falls Junior High and High School, where she excelled in her studies. She loved school, especially English. Her favorite vacations were the summers spent at her grandparents’ cabin near Island Park, Idaho.
While attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, she met the love of her life, Helger “Steve” Drangsholt, who was a returning WWII Navy veteran. Steve often recalled that when he met Jan, he said that she was the girl he was going to marry. Jan said Steve reminded her of her beloved Grandfather Martin Bundlie. She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority. Janet graduated from Northwestern with Honors and a degree in Journalism. She took a position as an Editorial Assistant for Commerce Clearing House.
Steve and Jan married on August 29, 1949 at the Episcopalian Church in Twin Falls, Idaho three years after they met. They honeymooned in Sun Valley, Glacier National Park, and then they drove across country in the new Studebaker Jan’s parents had given them as a wedding present, back to where they lived in a “horrid apartment in Chicago and were terribly happy”.
Reading, learning, dancing, playing cards (especially bridge) and volunteering were Janet’s favorite activities. She loved her friends and they often met for coffee at each other’s homes or had couples’ potlucks. She spent summers with her children at Glen Ayre Swim and Tennis Club. Her favorite vacation as an adult was her and Steve’s trip to Norway, where both Steve and Jan’s Maternal Grandfather Martin Bundlie were born.
Over the years volunteering took much of her time; she worked her children’s swim meets, was a School Room Parent for each child, a PTA officer, an active member of the League of Women Voters, a weekly library volunteer, on the County Board for the El Paso Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and a King City Councilperson. She then she served four years as the Mayor of King City, Oregon.
These were mostly done while raising three children: Meg Diane, Kent Steven, and Amy Jane. When her children started going off to college, she went back to work full time to pay for their college educations. She worked as a secretary for the Glen Ellyn School District, an administrative assistant for K-Wood Development, a library assistant at Tehama County Library, and an executive secretary for the head partner of a Big 8 accounting firm in El Paso, Texas.
Jan said she would follow her husband anywhere. They lived in Chicago, Illinois, Reading, Harrisburg and Ardmore Pennsylvania, Wheaton, Illinois, Red Bluff and Sacramento, California, Lake Oswego, Oregon, El Paso, Texas, and King City, Oregon. Jan moved to Hayden, Idaho the last eleven months of her life.
Her wish for the future was that her family would “find happiness…true love…have healthy children; and/or a career they love. To “have the strength in mind and spirit to handle the sorrows that enter every life.” To “be friendly and out-going but keep the character to know right from wrong and act accordingly”. Jan was a decent, honorable, intellectual, devoted, civic minded, lovely person who was deeply loved and will be greatly missed.
Jan was predeceased by her loving husband Helger “Steve March 7, 2007.
She is survived by her children, Meg Sullivan and her partner Ed O’Brien, Kent Drangsholt and his wife Jami, and Amy Hazard and her husband Ron.
Her biological grandchildren are Molly Nguyen, Jenny Sullivan, Steven Drangsholt, Danielle Benjamin, Faith Hazard, and Jeremiah Hazard.
Her biological great-grandchildren are Piper Nguyen, Chloe Sullivan, Judah Drangsholt, Lincoln Wiley, and Samuel Benjamin.
Jan also enjoyed many years with her daughter-in-law Jami’s adult children, Jessica Parrot, and James and Jason Morin.
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