On July 11, 1923 Janet Lowe became the first baby girl born at the newly opened Good Samaritan Hospital at 10th Street and McDowell Road in Phoenix, the daughter of Leo and Edna Vondracek. (Her mother had worried that the hospital would not open in time).
Janet grew up with her sister Geneva, born 5 years later, at a home near 14th Street and Campbell Ave. She attended and graduated from Madison Elementary School No. 1 at 16th Street and Missouri Ave.
When Janet was 9 years old she accepted Jesus Christ as her savior. Her devout Christian faith served as her foundation for the remainder of her life. She attended and served at First Missionary Church in downtown Phoenix on McKinley, Northwest Missionary Church on Northern Ave. and the last 43 years at Bethany Bible Church at 7th Ave. and Bethany Home Road.
Janet also attended and graduated from her father's alma mater, Phoenix Union High School, at 7th Street and Van Buren. Janet attended one year of college at Bob Jones College at the beginning of World War II. But she decided she wanted to contribute to the war effort. So in 1943 she joined the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corp. program, which had been implemented to address the nurse shortage nationally during WWII. The three-year program provided on-the-job training at a number of hospitals throughout the nation, including Good Samaritan Hospital. Shortly before she graduated in 1946 from the nursing program at Good Samaritan Hospital, which included 6 months of specialized surgical nursing at the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, the war ended so she did not serve overseas.
In November, 1946, she married Lewis W. Lowe, who had been born and raised on a farm in Gilbert, after his return from WWII as a German POW for 2 1/2 years. They had four children, Linda, Nancy, Charlie and Joyce, born between 1948 and 1955 -- all born at Good Samaritan Hospital at 10th Street and McDowell.
During the 1965-1966 school year, Janet welcomed into her home AFS foreign exchange student Gerlinde Krissl from Vienna for Gerlinde’s (and daughter Linda’s) senior year at Washington High School.
In 1966, Janet became the school nurse at the original Washington Elementary School at 27th Ave. and Northern. She worked there for 11 years.
In both 1971 and 1990, before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain, she and her husband Lewis visited the campsite in Poland where he had been held as a POW for much of the time he was in captivity. They attended a number of POW Oflag 64 reunions held biennially and then annually at different cities throughout the United States.
In retirement Janet enjoyed traveling with her husband all over the United States in the motorhome they bought in 1980. For several years they also traveled to attend the Indianapolis 500 Memorial Day race.
Janet skillfully sewed many of her children's clothes throughout their childhood, having learned well from her mother and grandmother. In retirement she also enjoyed collecting dolls and was a member of the West Phoenix Doll Club. And she always enjoyed going every summer to the log cabin her father and her uncle Archie Wilkes built themselves in 1946 in Greer, Arizona.
Janet was preceded in death by her parents Leo and Edna Vondracek, her sister Geneva Vondracek, her husband of 61 years, Lewis Lowe, and her son-in-law Richard Kurashige. She is survived by her four children: Linda Lowe of Phoenix, Nancy (Ralph) Lusby of Plano, Texas, Charlie Lowe of Phoenix, and Joyce Kurashige of San Diego. She is also survived by her six grandchildren: Rachel (Kevin) Arndt, Mark (Brooke) Lusby, Sarah Lusby, Ben (Veronica Lusby), Ian Kurashige (and his wife Keren Raz) and Jennifer (James) Clay, and two great grandchildren: Jacob Lusby and Trinity Arndt. She will be dearly missed by all of her family.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday afternoon, April 7, 2018, at 2:00 p.m. in the Activity Room on the second floor of the Centerview building at Fellowship Square, where Janet resided the last 8 years. (A map will be attached to the obituary posted on the A.L. Moore - Grimshaw Mortuary website).
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Phoenix Rescue Mission, P.O. Box 6708, Phoenix, AZ 85005-6708. A memory or condolence may be left at the A.L. Moore - Grimshaw Mortuary website.
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