Janie moved around with her family as a young child and eventually settled in Bellville, TX where she attended Bellville High School graduating in 1966. While in high school, Janie was a twirler in the Bellville Brahman Band, homecoming queen, honor society member, student council officer and was elected Miss BHS. In the fall of 1966, Janie enrolled at Baylor University to pursue a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Speech Pathology. While at Baylor, Janie was a twirler in the Baylor Golden Wave Band and was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.
Following graduation from Baylor in 1971, Janie married William M. “Bill” Knolle on July 24, 1971 and the couple set up household in Austin. Janie would thereafter start a long and rewarding career in education as a speech pathologist in the Austin Independent School District helping hundreds of students overcome speech and language deficiencies as well as mentoring countless other therapists in the district. She retired in 2005 from AISD having served the last four years of her career as the Administrative Supervisor for Speech Language Services for the district.
Janie was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and community servant. After her retirement, she continued to devote her time to volunteer tutoring, the Texas Retired Teachers Association, the Eta Tau Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma and to her most treasured activity of being a grandmother.
Janie is survived by her husband Bill; son Mark and his wife Heather, and granddaughter Hannah of Austin; son Brad and his wife Katie, and grandsons Brady and Baker, and granddaughter Emmy Lou of Bulverde. She also leaves behind two nieces, Anne Stith of Evergreen, CO and Heather Sanders of Arlington and their families.
She was preceded in death by her parents, T.J. and Muriel Hansard and brother Tommy Hansard.
Funeral arrangements have been made at Cook Walden Funeral Home located at 6100 N. Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78752. The family will receive guests from 3-5 pm on Sunday, July 7th and the memorial will be held on Monday, July 8th at 10 am at Cook Walden. The family will then proceed to Bellville, TX where Janie will be laid to rest at Pilgrims Rest Cemetery on Monday afternoon.
To honor Janie and the impact that she had educating the youth of Texas, the family is in the process of establishing the Janie Knolle Memorial Endowment with Rodeo Austin. Contributions can be labeled and sent to: Rodeo Austin, Attn: Endowments, 9100 Decker Lake Road, Austin, TX 78724.
