Janice C. (Koepke) FRANKLIN

FRANKLIN, KOEPKE

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:56

September 21, 1928 ----- March 8, 2018

Janice C. Franklin, 89, Prairie Village, passed away peacefully March 8, 2018 after working her way through dementia. So much kind care from Mary B's facility and hospice. Janice was born in Eagle Grove, IA, to Gilbert and Hilda Koepke, in a typical upper Plains German and Scandinavian family heading toward WWII. Jan started her way from that small town with a job as a telephone operator, a trendy, tech job for a young woman of the time, with plenty of dancing Saturday nights to big band sounds. She married a WWII vet and had four children beginning in her early 20s, two of whom (Steve and Annie) did not survive infancy. Jan worked her entire adult life, becoming a single mother in 1962, a pretty new and sometimes a more challenging status in that time. She took the custodial role in raising her two sons, moving around Iowa a bit following jobs and Catholic schools. She found a long term place in Ames, at Iowa State University, first at Ames Laboratory (post war nukes) and then as the executive secretary in Computer Science, then in the Statistics Department. She stayed at ISU for 30 years, always proud of her connection. Jan retired and followed her sons to Kansas City. She worked a bit in her 70s in a law office - always active!! She became a well known walker in her Prairie Village neighborhood. She steered her way with Mass at St. Anne's, her cat, a Saturday house-cleaning and a shoveled walk in every snowstorm. Wisteria and many other green things pleasure. The post-Depression, post WWII experiences shaped a steady well-serving character. The 7 mile walks eventually shortened and gave some way to dementia. But residents around SM South later knew her even then for her friendly wave and determined stride in all weathers, remember that hat. Jan outlived siblings Barbara, Ray, Milton, and Pat. She never forgot her Koepke side. She is survived by Franklin sons Tom (Janet) and Greg (Mary), grandsons, and Cocoa the cat. No service. Interment in Eagle Grove . Donations made to Heart of America Humane Society, PO Box 12703, O.P., KS 66282 to care for or place cats would be appreciated.

Kansas City Star --- Kansas City, Missouri
March 21, 2018

Section: Obituaries