Ellen Janson

1928 - 2016

Ellen Janson

Age: 87 • Middlebury

Moments after a glorious sunset seen over the shores of Lake Champlain and descending into the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Ellen Janson released her grip on life, July 12, 2016. A longtime Shelburne resident on the Vermont shore, Ellen leaves behind her four children who were at her side and equally bonded to this Vermont beauty.

Growing up as Ellen Louise Gutsche in Pittsburgh, PA, our mother was born December 11, 1928 and attended the Ellis School for Girls. Although her parents were not able to pursue higher education, her father was proud of his work at the J. Horne department store and his ability to provide well for his family. Ellen must have shocked her pragmatic parents' expectations when she wanted to attend Wellesley College to study art and art history. After college she followed her father's career in a buyers training program at Bloomingdales, but was nearly fired for taking a night class in art history.

This must have prompted her to approach her parents again: what she really wanted was to continue her studies in graduate school. Her father recognized her true passions and offered support when she was accepted to Yale University.

Her great interest was British and early American art and she came to know a close community of graduate students, including her husband, Richard Janson. They ended up in Vermont, when he accepted a teaching offer from UVM. In the early 1960's it may have seemed a bit out of the way after their Bohemian years at Yale, traveling in Europe on Fulbright scholarships and his teaching stint

in Bermuda. Like all of us though, she loved the harmony of the small towns and buildings, farms, the lake, mountains and forests.

Ellen occasionally taught evening art history classes at the university as well as at Lyndon College, and dressed windows for storefronts on Church Street. At home she enjoyed making jewelry, combining silver, stones, and wood: pieces today that would be admired as "midcentury modern". In addition to painting the walls and woodwork of our family homes, she found time to do drawings and wood cut prints, many of which ended up as Christmas cards or sale items at her college fundraisers. Some of her earliest subjects were us kids. She drew and painted things that were important to her the lake and woods that surrounded her house and objects with special meanings like a table lamp, animals and her dogs.

As an active member of the Shelburne community, over the years Ellen contributed her time to the Shelburne Crafts School, the Bicentennial Committee, book sales and contests, and could be counted on to appear at town hearings to comment on development plans. She always strove for the recognition and preservation of the town's cultural and natural resources.

In 2011 Ellen left her lakeside home in Shelburne with tremendous heartbreak to begin a new phase of her life at The Residence at Otter Creek in Middlebury. There she found ongoing love, care, and devotion from every caregiver, housekeeper, maintenance, administration, cook, and newly made residential friends. She was able to transition from the earlier frustrations that come with age and enter a contented and happy last stage of her life. Our family will be forever grateful for the help and love Ellen received at the "Residence" and equally to the nurses, doctors, volunteers and staff at Fletcher Allen who greatly supported them in a difficult and sad time.

Ellen leaves behind her four children, who are grateful to their mother for her support, encouragement, eccentricity, and inspiring in us an appreciation of the simple beauty around us. We are her son Charles Janson and wife Kathleen, their two children, Christopher and Emma of Darien, CT; son George Janson and wife Carolyn Perot, their two children, Owen and Charles of Mill Valley, CA; daughter Anne Janson and husband Andrew Wormer of Ferrisburgh, VT, and three children, Alice Hasen, Edward Hasen and Willem Wormer; daughter Jean Fulkerson and husband Davis Fulkerson, their three children, Lena, Eleanor, and Julia of Chestnut Hill, MA; brother Brett Gutsche of Paoli, PA, who inspired her love of opera, and his children, Marcia, Stewart, and Steven. Ellen was predeceased by our father and former husband Richard H. Janson, her parents, and infant brother. Memorial arrangements will be announced at a later date.

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