Janet Mckeen

Janet Mckeen, aka Janet Burt was born in 1936. at family home in Dalscott, England. She lived on a large farm with her sister,Barbara and parents Victoria and Sydney. They lived thru World War II and watched it happen all around them. Janet attended Derngate High School, where her mother also attended in the 1920's. Janet played field hockey, net ball and tennis at school. You know the phrase that you tell youth "well when i went to school we had to walk/ride for miles and uphill all the way home, it was actually true for Janet and Barbara. She had the privledge to go to Althorpe to work with Princess Diana's father, Lord Spencer with agriculture and the estates cattle. Janet attended Moulton college and received a degree in Agriculture/farming. She would show bulls at competitions and would also judge bulls. Janet soon realized she needed to leave England and off to New Zealand she went at age 20. She spent two years as a Milk Inspector going to local farms assessing the cows and milk. She returned home and worked for a farmer who had a popular race horse. She decided America was her next stop. In 1962 a New York mafia family paid her fare on the Queen Mary and off she went to her dream. She worked as their chaffeur and other jobs. Janet then married and had daughter Julie Wynkoop. In 1965, it was back to England for a few and the America itch was still there so off to Colorado in 1966, she joined a fellow Brit who also worked in New York. Janet worked as a waitress at the Ramada Inn across from the old Stapleton airport. In 1970 she remarried, moved to Texas and quickly realized Dallas was not her thing, no mountains. So back to Colorado, she lived in Arvada had her 2nd daughter Denise Mckeen. Janet became a US Citizen in 1972. She was so proud. Janet still had an itch. she loved to hike, especially with her hiking partner Jane Princehorn, who was an Arvada neighbor. In 1980 she moved to Estes Park to live and cut the driving time for hiking by 1.5 hours. laugh. She ran a business-bed and bath. but her passion was hiking. Her other passion was volunteering. She volunteered as a victim advocate for 20 years. Janet worked with victims of domestic violence and fatalities that were non health related, supporting the families. She also voluntered for the Estes Park police for many years. She did fingerprinting, front desk, traffic and crowd control, and even took people down to jail. She absolutely was so proud to wear the uniform and her Estes Park police volunteer jacket. She said if she had to do all over again she would have become a police officer. To the men and women in blue, she loved you as her family, each and everyone of you. Thank you for your service. Janet received numerous community awards throughout the years for her contribution to Estes Park and its citizens. Janet had an incredible amount of friends. Her friends meant the world to her. She looked forward to her hikes with Jane of course, who moved to Estes also, and her hiking group members. She made it to the summit of Longs Peak and said "never again". She hiked in the summer and snow shoed in the winter. Janet was the happiest up on the mountains, and I suspect that is where her spirit is at this moment. She asked me to ask everyone to "smile more and try to be kinder". She was very kind, generous and full of determination. If Janet wanted something it happened. To all of her friends along the way, thank you for making her life bright and full, you all are truly amazing and very dear to our mom. Janet was a mother-Julie and Denise, grandmother-Ashley and Zachary and a great grandmother- Haylie, Bryson, Brylie and Halsey. The granchildren always thought she talked funny with the english accent. There will be a celebration of Janet in early fall. She was very clear she didn't want a funeral and no "boo-hooing". So a happy event it shall be. If you want to do something in Janet's honor she would love if people donated to Blue Santa, one of her favorite things to organize , or an just an random act of kindness, "Kindness is free, but priceless to receive". On her fridge to see daily was " I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel" Maya Angelou. To leave a message for the family please visit www.allnuttestespark.com