Janet Louise Prote

Janet Louise (Unternahrer) Prote Peruski, age 90, passed away peacefully on February 25th, 2026.

Nurse. Wife. Mother. Grandmother. Cancer survivor. Lifelong Tiger baseball fan. Lover of all thing’s chocolate. Avid reader. Detroit Symphony donor. Dear friend. All of these describe the woman that was Janet. She was born on August 31st, 1935, in Detroit to Thomas & Anna (Anton) Unternahrer. Sadly, Janet’s mother died when she was only 4 years old.

Janet graduated from Mackenzie High School (Detroit, MI) in 1953. She attended Wayne State University while figuring out a major, thinking of becoming either a librarian or a gym teacher. She realized that her true calling was in the field of nursing and graduated from Hurley Hospital School of Nursing (Flint, MI) in 1958. She was employed as an Operating Room Nurse at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak and retired from there in 2002.

What mattered most to Janet was her family, her friends & her beloved cottage on Torch Lake! She loved being there, especially when her children & grandchildren would visit. She looked forward to their summer rituals, making her “famous” buttermilk or blintz pancakes, walking to Brownwood to buy freshly made donuts or her most favorite, going to King’s Orchard to pick apples, raspberries or cherries and picking up a cherry pie to go!

Janet met Leonard Peruski through a nursing friend and the two would spend the next 33 years together, married for the last two years they were together before Leonard’s passing in October 2023. Grieving the loss of her husband, Janet moved to Torch Lake full-time. Unfortunately, she missed her children and grandchildren, and it was clear that she needed to be closer to her family so that they could take care of her.

Janet is preceded in death by her brother Ronald Unternahrer, her sister Mary Ann Sanfilippo Pritchard, her ex-husband John J Prote and her husband Leonard Peruski. She is survived by her daughter Marilyn (Scott) Schumaker, son Thomas Prote, grandchildren Jack, Max, Sam & Sarah Schumaker and her sisters Wanda Hellmer, Sonja Doherty and Cassie Bonneff, as well as many wonderful extended family and friends.

Janet’s children are honoring her wishes to not have a funeral mass, instead she will be cremated and buried with her mother, Anna. A private burial will be held later in the spring.