Janet Simmons

Janet Lois (Wilson) Simmons 1930-2024



Janet Lois Simmons, 93 years old, of Mountain View, California, died in Berkeley, California on April 16, 2024. Janet was born in Chicago in July 9, 1930 to Charles Griffin Wilson and Elvera Charlotte Lundien Wilson. She grew up in Chicago, with two brothers Roger and Charles (Chuck) and her sister Sara (Sally) in a family that celebrated Swedish traditions learned from her maternal Swedish grandmother. After graduating from Morgan Park High School, Janet worked for a period at the famed Marshall Field's department store in downtown Chicago before attending Purdue University where she graduated with a B.S. in Home Economics in 1955.



Music, travel and curiosity were cornerstones of Janet's life. Piano was the focus of her childhood where she spent her time with piano practice, recitals and occasionally larger audiences including a live-radio performance. She said that once she knew a piano piece, she never made a mistake which gave her confidence to perform without stage fright. In adulthood she brought this same intensity to learning classical guitar. Janet and her sister Sally moved to San Francisco in 1955 where Janet was trained in phlebotomy at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and spent her career as a supervisor in medical testing laboratories. Janet was briefly married and during these years she loved to sail on their boat, camping, spend time with her German Shepard Gretchen, and crocheting, making all of her nieces crocheted vests when they were children. The Bay Area remained Janet's home for the rest of her life.



Janet's relationship with her sister Sally and Sally's husband George was particularly close, and she accompanied them on their travels all over the world including a trip down the Amazon, a safari in Africa, traveling throughout Europe, and Kazakhstan. In the late 1990s, Janet retired to a senior mobile home park in Mountain View, California where she enjoyed her neighbors, continued to play music and jewelry making. She rode out the pandemic at her sister Sally's home in Berkeley where her nieces Maria and Erica joined in helping her, along with her bonus-nephews Marc and Claude, with other family visiting to help.



Although Janet had lost much of her vision, to the end she remained very curious and engaged. She spent her days listening to youtube videos of her favorite pianists and guitarists and watching the weekly updates from NASA's International Space Station. She developed a new interest in space and the possibilities of space travel in her last years. Just in the last months she had read biographies on US presidents Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and the less remembered Herbert Hoover, commenting that Hoover was much better president than given credit for.



Janet was well loved. She was close to her siblings and lived a life enveloped by her family. Janet is predeceased by her siblings Roger Lenox Wilson, Sara ("Sally") Wilson Williams, and Charles Griffin Wilson, Jr., and survived by nieces and nephews: Maria (Mike Lough) Williams; Erica (Alan) Orcharton: Jennifer (Shawn) Peters; Peter (Rebecca) Williams; Melissa (Bruce) Twedt; Griff (Susan) Wilson; Rebecca (Michael) Kneissl; Kristin Gunning; Trevor Wilson; bonus-nephews Marc and Claude Imbault, and cousins Karen Brajenovich-Sanders and Karol Peake; grandnieces and nephews: Peter Jr. and Steven Williams; Ashley and Johnna Peters; Lincoln and Nathan Twedt; Johannes Kneissl; Georgia Orcharton; and the youngest member of the family, her great-grand-nephew Peter (Briggs) Williams III. We also express our gratitude to Bambi, who provided wonderful care and companionship to Janet in her last months. Our Aunt Janet will truly be missed.