Janice Marie Caroline

Janice "Jan" Marie Caroline (née Anderson), 87, of San Antonio, Texas passed away on July 12, 2025, at Oak View Assisted Living.

Born on June 29, 1938 at the French Hospital in San Francisco, CA, she was the daughter of Ralph L. and Lydia M. (Stoen) Anderson.

Jan was the middle child, flanked by her lanky siblings, Shirley and Walt, and raised in Los Altos, Lodi, and Boulder Creek, CA. A daughter of Swedish-Norwegian Americans, Jan carried her heritage not just in her freckles and six-foot stature, but also in her devotion to God and plainspoken honesty. As a girl, she relished summer visits from her cousin Linda and riding her paint horse Beauty. She graduated from San Lorenzo Valley High School in 1956. Gifted with a knack for numbers, she earned an associate degree in accounting from Armstrong Business College in 1958. In San Francisco, Janice met Robert "Dusty" A. Caroline, a Pecos two-stepper with a honeyed voice and kind heart. The rest, as they say, is history. On April 4, 1959, in Reno, NV, they married.

They had three children-Monica, Joni, and Robby-while living in California, before moving to Albuquerque, NM, where Mike was born. In 1969, a southwest wind swept them to El Paso, TX, where Jeanne was born in 1976. Jan and Dusty would call El Paso home for nearly three decades.

Jan served as a kindergarten teacher, worked as an ER clerk during the early days of trauma medicine, ran a home daycare, assisted in a preschool, and completed coursework in education and psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso. She was also a seamstress to anyone who asked, stitching everything from scalloped kitchen curtains to satin bridesmaid dresses. But her heart was always in her family and her church. She was president of her local Women's Aglow chapter. Once, she drove to Alaska before the ALCAN highway was paved to see her siblings, her kids piled in the back seat of her station wagon. Jan took in more than just her own, offering warmth, shelter, prayers and plenty of food to whoever needed it. Her household teemed with life: dogs, cats, lambs, goats, chickens, horses and Dinner Duck, who believed he was one of the dogs.

In their final years, she cared for her mother-in-law, mother, and in the hardest season of all, her youngest son, all with unwavering grace, strength and love.

In 1999, she, Dusty, and their granddaughter Winona moved to Fort Davis, TX, where she planted a garden in the high desert, coaxing hummingbirds, jackrabbits and, eventually, trees that still tower today. At dawn, you could find her lounging in her favorite reading chair, Folgers in hand, Bible in lap. In the evenings, she rode an ornery Paso Fino horse passed down from her sister. She cared for Dusty tenderly toward the end of his life, playing "Singin' in the Rain" and baking sugar-free cookies, which he promptly traded for the sugary kind. She loved long walks, tight perms, Davis Mountains State Park, Solitaire, singing in the Christmas choir and the color brown. She didn't much care what others thought, and forgiveness came easily to her. After church on Sundays, friends from all walks of life stopped by to visit, and summers overflowed with family, drawn by the promise of the coolest Fourth of July in Texas.

In 2011, she moved to San Antonio to be closer to those very loved ones. Even when names escaped her, she'd tickle your ear with the lyrics of Doris Day and tell you she loved you. In recent months, she spoke of heaven and of reuniting with the family she had long since lost.

Those left to cherish her memory include her brother, Walter Anderson of Anchorage, AK, and four of her children: Monica (Mark) Dorazio of San Antonio, TX; Joni (Randy) Lloyd of North Platte, NE; Robert "Robby" Caroline of San Antonio, TX; and Jeanne (Chris) Mitchell of Austin, TX.

She is also survived by ten grandchildren: Russell (Mallory) Dorazio, Rachel (Heath) Gholson, Carrie (Tabor) Mahan and Caitlin (Scott) Von Thun; Robert (Victoria) Lloyd and Barbara (Tanner) Ellis; Winona León, Patrick Miller and Rezin Mitchell; and Haley Caroline, along with fifteen great-grandchildren. A special friend, Annora Buchanan (John) Rubio, and their daughters Peaches and Jessie, held dear places in her heart, as did her many nieces, nephews and cousins.

She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents and in-laws, her son Michael "Mike" A. Caroline, her sister Shirley J. Bayless and brother-in-law Pat, and many beloved uncles, aunts, cousins and friends.

A graveside service was held at Memory Gardens of the Valley in Santa Teresa, NM, on Friday, August 1st, and a celebration of life followed at Lifehouse Church in San Antonio on Saturday, August 9th.

A copy of this obituary ran in the July 31st issue of the Jeff Davis County Mountain Dispatch.

Donations in Jan's memory may be sent to Reynolds Home, which supports women and children experiencing housing insecurity in El Paso, or Lifehouse Church in San Antonio. Please share your memories by signing the guest book.