Janice ALBERT

ALBERT, Janice (Hubka) Janice passed away peacefully Sunday (May 23, 2010) at 7:11 pm on the 7th floor Hospice Wing of Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, CT. She was surrounded by friends and family after a four-month long fight against lung cancer and brain tumors. She was born in Denver, CO on April 6, 1937, the first child to Viola and Frank Hubka. As a young girl, she was a passionate piano player, a student of ballet and a starlet in an early Stan Brakhage film at the age of 15. Her family grew to include a younger brother, William, and twins Doris and Douglas. Janice received a full scholarship in 1953 to attend the University of Chicago. There she studied English Literature and Humanities. Her Master's Thesis on George Bernard Shaw was under the direction of Norman Maclean, author of "A River Runs Through It." She moved to California after graduation with her first husband, Charlie "Skip" Henson, and they lived in the San Francisco Bay Area together for a little over five years. She was hired as an English Teacher at Chabot Community College in Hayward, California and worked there for over 30 years, the last 10 at their Las Positas campus in Livermore, California. In addition to her employment there, she gave many workshops for Elderhostel on California writers which were accompanied by her own photographs. After retirement, Janice worked at the Education Testing Service, first in Oakland, then in Middletown. She was a scorer, then a scoring leader and participated in ETS workshops in Princeton, New Jersey. Finally, she taught memoir classes to students in California and Connecticut up until Fall 2009. At Chabot she met Richard Albert, whom she married and they had two daughters, Gwendolyn Hubka Albert and Amy Frances Albert. Although they divorced in the mid 1970's, when they both met their grandchild they had lots to catch up on regarding colleagues, Chabot, and the changing role of teaching. Although a resident of the California Bay Area for 40 years when she became a Nana in 2004 she sold her condo on Lake Merritt in Oakland to move closer to granddaughter, Madeline Hubka Landers. Janice loved the arts, especially Chanticleer. She appreciated painting, dance, Opera, theater, The Gates in Central Park, photography, writing and poetry. Travel was another passion of Janice's and she explored the United States, Mexico, Europe and her ancestral homeland, The Czech Republic. There she visited Prague many times to visit her daughter Gwen and even took a trip to the town of Ostrov, in Bohemia, where she found the farmhouse our ancestor, Jan Putta left to come to Chicago in the 1800's. She is survived by her two daughters, their husbands Vincent Farnsworth and Richard Landers, respectively; her two brothers, Bill and Doug, as well as her beloved granddaughter, Madeline. There will be a memorial service on Friday (May 28, 2010) at 6 p.m. at the Inn at Middletown, 70 Main Street in Middletown, CT, the town she spent the last five years of her life. There will also be a funeral held at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where her ashes will be laid to rest. The Doolittle Funeral Home, 14 Old Church Street, Middletown is handling the arrangements. Messages of condolence may be sent to the family at www.doolittlefuneralservice.com.