Jannette Burr Johnson

Jannette was introduced to the mountains, snow and skiing at a very young age. Her father, Wallace Burr, manufactured water skis in Seattle and the family was a member of the Seattle Mountaineers. After she won the first race at Snoqualmie Pass, she was hooked.

Soon she entered a four-way competition, taking third place and defeating many males in the competition. In 1953, Jannette won the Eccles Cup at Snowbasin and the Brighton Intermountain Giant Slalom and placed second in the Snow Cup.

She was the National Downhill Champion in 1948 and 1950 and the North American Downhill Champion in 1950.

In 1951 and 1952 she won several races in Europe. In 1950 and 1954, Jannette was a participant in FIS World Championships in Sweden and a member of the U. S. Olympic Team in 1952 that competed in Oslo, Norway. In 1954 FIS competition in Sweden, when she won the bronze medal in the Giant Slalom, she was wearing "lucky" stretch pants she had borrowed from storied ski competitor Buddy Werner. She was one of the first women racers to wear stretch pants for cutting wind resistance.

She was the only American to win a medal, a bronze, in the 1954 World Championships.

In 1955 she was awarded the Diamond Harriman Pin, an honor shared only with ski legend Gretchen Fraser. In 1970 she was inducted in the National Ski Hall of Fame and Sun Valley gave her a lifetime free pass.

During the 1960’s, she worked as a ski instructor in Sun Valley and gave ski lessons to several members of the Rockefeller and Kennedy families. There was more to Jannette than just snow skiing: In the summer months in Seattle and Florida, she was also performing as a championship water skier using her father’s boards.

In retirement she never sat still. She took up bridge and became a life-master and ballroom dancing. One highlight of her career was doubling for Lucille Ball in Lucy Goes to Sun Valley, it was one of her most memorable accomplishments that also earned her a broken ankle while finishing the last take.

Well, Jannette had a special relationship with heaven. She didn’t roll right by those Pearly Gates. She is there now, swooshing the elements. She was a great athlete and full of pizzaz for life.

She leaves a daughter, Kelly Johnson, who lives in Arlington, Washington.