Jan Speer Munyon

Jan Speer Munyon of Collierville, TN was many things—beloved wife, sister, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, aunt, and friend; homemaker extraordinaire; servant of God; businesswoman; self-made interior decorator; craft maven; inveterate shopper and hostess; fashion plate; tennis partner; tireless volunteer; Birthday Club President; lover of gin rummy, dominoes, and Candy Crush; follower of the Alabama Crimson Tide; and, late in life, extemporaneous creator of memorable children’s stories—but she was never lazy. The boundless energy and enthusiasm that propelled her for 76 years unexpectedly came to an end on November 8, 2022, when she was called home, shortly after celebrating her 55th wedding anniversary.

Jan Corine Speer was a child of the post-World-War-II oil boom, born on August 13, 1946, in Kermit, TX, to L.O. and Georgie Speer. During Jan’s early years, L.O.’s job with Standard Oil took their family all over West Texas. They lived in Wink, Pampa, Levelland, and Andrews before the family finally settled down in Farmington, located in the Four Corners area of New Mexico. From an early age, Jan had a well-honed sense of style. She always liked to look her best and was known to change clothes four to five times a day if she got dirty playing—something that was a point of contention with her mother. Jan relished small-town life in “the Big F” with her beloved sister Gwen. She fondly recalled watching the Navajo coming in from the reservation to sell turquoise, rugs, and pottery, sparking a lifelong love of Southwestern accoutrements. She knew everyone in town and worked part-time at Farmington Drug, run by Gwen’s husband Charles Clouthier. She thrived at Farmington High School as a student, a Future Homemaker of America, a varsity cheerleader, a Girls State attendee, and Prom Queen.

After graduating in 1964, she enrolled at the University of New Mexico, where she was a proud sister of Pi Beta Phi. While attending summer school in the summer of 1966, her life took a fateful turn. On the first day of a child psychology class, she walked into an auditorium with mostly empty seats and sat directly next to Larry, who was in town for the summer visiting his parents. When the teacher fixed his seating chart for the remainder of the course based on those seats, their path in life was set. After a brief long-distance courtship, Larry transferred to UNM, and they were married on campus on October 28, 1967. Thus began the love of a lifetime (after a one-day honeymoon in Santa Fe to which Larry inexplicably decided to bring his Latin textbook).

Jan and Larry began their family in the DC area, welcoming sons Dean in 1969 and Kyle in 1973 before moving to Germantown, TN in 1977. Jan was always involved in her boys’ activities, whether as a homeroom mom, Cub Scout den leader, or sports spectator (her go-to exhortation: “Even if you aren’t playing well, you can always hustle!”). She loved all aspects of being a mother, and she was good at it. She was June Cleaver in a tennis skirt: she packed the best brown-bag lunches, made many a Halloween costume, and was always there to take over a school art project gone awry. And did she ever love holidays. Her Easter scavenger hunts were legendary, and she sometimes would go late into the night stringing the family Christmas tree with popcorn and cranberries. Jan had one notable weakness: she always said that she was glad that she did a better job raising her boys than she did with the beloved family dog Bridget, who she relentlessly spoiled.

After the boys got older, Jan started a new chapter in her life by starting a business, Perfect Choice. This new career allowed her to merge several of her passions: working with jewelry (she was always so well-accessorized!), visiting the best clothing shops, and passing the time talking with her customers, who became her friends. She logged thousands of miles traveling the highways of the Mid South; there was hardly a boutique between Ripley, Indianola, and Newport that she had not visited.

Anyone who knew Jan was aware of how important her faith was to her. She sought to emulate Christ through her compassion and encouragement of others. She never said no to a request for help, and her home was constantly open for any reason, be it social events or seminary students needing a place to live. Truly, her spiritual gift was that of hospitality. She was committed to learning the Word of God, as borne out by the voluminous notes in her Bible, made over many years of deliberate study. She exhibited the heart of a servant in multiple capacities over the years, including nursery volunteer, Vacation Bible School leader, Sunday School teacher, and personnel committee member. Her outreach extended to the larger community, including Meals on Wheels, nursing homes, Hampfest, and several mission trips to the Dominican Republic.

In 1996, Jan was blessed with the addition to the family of the daughter she never had, Kyle’s wife Stacie. Shortly thereafter, Jan welcomed the first of her six grandchildren. Because she lived so close to Jackson and Grayson, she was intimately involved in every aspect of their childhoods and attended many a football and baseball game. She enjoyed spoiling Cade, Harper, Declan, and Raleigh with shopping trips on her visits to Austin. Her many legacies to her grandchildren include passing on her love of gin rummy and dominoes, her suspiciously addictive annual batch of Christmas sugar cookies, and, most importantly, the many meaningful conversations along the way. Finally, while Jan always claimed to not be blessed creatively, she surprised us all by bequeathing to her grandchildren the oral adventures of the intrepid interplanetary traveler Hinky Pinky, summoned from her fertile imagination on the spur of the moment whenever a bedtime story was needed.

No description of Jan would be complete without mentioning her friend life. She loved her girlfriends and formed many deep and abiding sister-like bonds that lasted for decades. She always seemed to be planning a birthday celebration, a shopping trip, or a beach vacation with her many partners in crime. Jan was the consummate hostess, and she was seldom happier than when she was organizing an event with her friends.

While the sense of loss to Jan’s family and friends created by her passing is palpable, her unwavering faith and the trove of memories that she left us is more than equal to the task of sustaining us in her absence.

To begin the process of celebrating a life well-lived, visitation will be held Friday, November 11, 2022, starting at 11 am at Harvest Church, 3645 Forest Hill Irene Rd, Germantown, TN, followed by a memorial service at 1 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any donations to honor Jan be directed to one of her favorite missionary families, Steve and Margaret Winstead, and their work at International Evangelical Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (https://orphanos.kindful.com/?campaign=1086361).

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.colliervillefuneral.com for the Munyon family.