Janet Altman

ALTMAN, GURKIN, SIEWERT

Posted By: Tara (email)
Date: 6/11/2009 at 14:09:58

Janet Altman, of 720 Clark Street, Iowa City, died of cancer on July 18, 2008.

A memorial service will be held Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 4pm at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service, Iowa City. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Riverside Theatre, 213 N. Gilbert St., Iowa City, IA 52245 or to Iowa Public Television,
Attn. Connie, PO Box 6400, Johnston, IA 50131.

She was born Janet Elizabeth Gurkin in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 3, 1945. She graduated as valedictorian of her class from Duke University in 1967, and received her PhD in French Literature from Yale University in 1973.

Janet taught in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Iowa from 1974 until cancer forced her to retire in 2003. Besides teaching French theater and 18th-century studies, Janet was a recognized authority on epistolary novels and real correspondences. During her career she received many honors, including Woodrow Wilson, Fulbright, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.

With her husband Rick and her children Michael and Jennifer, Janet led an international life, spending many happy summers and research years in France, and lecturing on letters and letter novels throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States.

Janet was a lifelong lover of theater, dance, and music. As a teenager she won awards for her performances as Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank and as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at Raleigh’s Little Theatre. At Duke, she and her husband-to-be had great fun trading stage jibes in Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Anouilh’s L’Alouette. In Iowa City, Janet was a longtime supporter of Riverside Theatre. In recent years she took particular pleasure in ballroom dancing, the music of her friend jazz pianist Dan Knight, and the company of her fellow theater-goer Miriam Gilbert. Just weeks before her death, Janet had the great satisfaction of participating in the marriage of her daughter Jennifer to Ramon Siewert.

Janet was an avid viewer and supporter of Iowa Public Television.

Janet is survived by her husband Rick of Iowa City and their daughter Jennifer Altman
Siewert.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Roy and Sylvia Gurkin, her brother, James and her son Michael Altman.