Janis Irene Thompson

Janis Irene Thompson was born to the late Vivian Louise Davis-Washington and James Edward Washington in Giatto, West Virginia, May 13, 1946. She was the youngest of five brothers and sisters. Janis, affectionately known as Jan, gave her life to Christ at an early age.

Jan attended high school in Bluefield, West Virginia. She earned a Medical Lab Associate’s Degree from Northeastern University.

In 1966, Jan met C.W. through a family friend in Boston, Massachusetts. Their courtship endured for two-years and resulted in marriage on November 30, 1968. After C.W.’s military tour to Vietnam, the couple moved to Newark Air Force Station in Ohio. While in Ohio, C.W. completed a one-year tour in Thailand and then they moved to Travis AFB, CA., where they resided in Fairfield for four years before C.W. was transferred to Mather Air Force Base for one year and retired. Jan and C.W. settled in Sacramento and have lived here for over 40 years.

For three years, Jan worked as a laboratory technician at the Licking County Hospital in Newark, Ohio and seven years with the United States Postal Services in Sacramento.

While Jan led a simple life, her beauty was anything but simple. She was elegant and graceful. But her true beauty emanated from her large heart. She loved children, her friends, her family, and her beloved husband of 49 years. Jan also had a special love for her four-legged baby, “Drago.”

Jan is preceded in death by her parents, James Edward Washington and Vivian Louise Davis-Washington; her brother Thomas Washington; sister Charlotte Desmond; brother James Washington; stepson Charles Thompson.

Left to cherish her memory is her husband, C.W. Thompson of Sacramento, CA; step daughter, Felicia Madison (Dred) of Cibolo, Texas; brother, Thomas Washington (Marva) of Linden, New Jersey; as well as a host of nieces, nephews and friends.