Janet L. Brandon

Janet L. Brandon

Janet L. Brandon, age 92, of Grand Rapids, MN, passed away of natural causes peacefully surrounded by her children on Monday, February 19, 2024, at her home at Majestic Pines.

Janet was the youngest of five children born to Atty. Howard Warren Anderson and Clara Jean (Benson) at their home in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She loved music and played the flute and piano. She made All-State in music her senior year and was the piano accompanist at a local dance studio during her high school years. She also was a "pinsetter" at the bowling alley and was a "soda-jerk" at the local drugstore. It was at the drugstore, in her junior year, where she met the man of her dreams.

After graduating in 1949, Janet attended Macalester College. She transferred to St. Cloud Teachers College to fast-track her degree in order to marry Dave C. Brandon, the love of her life. They were married on August 4, 1951, at the Grand Rapids First Presbyterian Church. The newlyweds moved to Trimont and Janet taught elementary school for two years.

Janet and her husband would move a total of twelve times before settling at Montevideo in 1962. Her six children graduated from Montevideo from 1971-1978. During these years she would substitute teach in the district and also teach ESL out of her home. You could also find her teaching Sunday school and singing in the choir at the First Congregational Church, delivering meals on wheels, volunteering for the DFL party, sewing her children's clothes, making her famous buttermilk pancakes (every morning), leading 4-H and Boy Scouts, and camping.

In 1981, Janet and Dave returned to Grand Rapids area and built a log home. They maintained the Brandon Christmas Tree Farm and became involved at the Lawron Presbyterian Church in Balsam Township. She took up quilting, traveled with Habitat for Humanity, loved playing cards and games and volunteered at church and Hospice, for 25 years. She was very active in helping the mentally ill, and she and Dave started a Conservatorship in Itasca County for the mentally ill.

Her all-time favorite thing to do, though, was to sit on her deck, lost in her latest library book, holding her bolt-action long rifle ready to take out a squirrel.

Janet was preceded in death by her husband (1994); sons, David (2023) and Dennis (2023). She is survived by one son; Howard, of Hutchinson, MN; daughters, Diane (Rob) Moser of Bovey MN, Heidi (Tom) Proell of St. Cloud, MN; and LeeAnn (Jim) Hess of Bemidji, MN; daughter-in-law, Debbie Brandon of Montevideo, MN; 19 grandchildren and 26 great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 2, 2024, at the Lawron Presbyterian Church, in Balsam Township near Bovey at 12:30 PM. Burial will be at Balsam Cemetery following the memorial service. Rev. Dorothy Duquette will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Lawron Presbyterian Church preferred.

Arrangements are pending with Libbey Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Grand Rapids, MN. To sign the online guestbook or send condolences visit www.libbeyfuneralhome.com.