Janene Kay Welcker's Obituary
Janene Kay Welcker of Sandy, Utah passed away on March 5, 2021 after a courageous battle with cancer.
Janene was born in Great Falls, Montana on September 16, 1960, to Kemmer and Janet Vance.
Married Christopher Paul Welcker in Highland, Utah December 18, 1981
Their Children: Amy Spencer (Jeff Spencer), Christopher Welcker (Marial Welcker), Jody Findlay (Cameron Findlay) and Emily Richards (Ben Richards)
Parents: Kemmer & Janet Vance
Siblings: Kyle Vance, Kevin Vance, Jackie Wilson, Julie Cook, Kirk Vance
Grandchildren: 21
Viewing
Friday, March 12, 2021, 6-8 pm There will be a viewing for Janene at Premier Funeral Services 67 East 8000 South, Sandy, Utah 84047
Funeral Services
Saturday, March 13, 2021, 9:00 am There will be a public funeral service for Janene at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 9636 South 1700 East, Sandy, Utah 84092. We are limited to 150 people in this location due to COVID restrictions. If you are able to watch the zoom link it would be appreciated, we understand that for some, this won't do, but only 150 will be allowed.
Saturday, March 13, 11:00am. There will be a family funeral service for Janene at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 9636 South 1700 East, Sandy, Utah 84092.
This service will be only for family members, again we are limited to 150 and a Zoom link will also be available for those that choose to watch.
Family Prayer 10:30 For immediate family only
Burial will be held immediately after the 11:00 service at the Alpine Cemetery, 400 Grove Drive, Alpine Utah
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98422323725?pwd=Z2ZEQzc0dTh2cnBPOWpnb0ZLSjcwQT09
Meeting ID: 984 2232 3725
Passcode: 504615
Summary for Janene Kay Vance Welcker’s Life
Janene Vance Welcker, age 60 passed away peacefully, on March 5, 2021, after battling esophagus cancer for five months.
Janene was born on September 16, 1960 in Great Falls, Montana to Kemmer Vance and Janet Gray. She was the 2nd of six children. Most of her childhood was spent on the Crow Bench in Fort Shaw, Montana.
For much of her childhood her family owned and operated a farm and dairy on the bench in Fort Shaw. Janene grew up working hard on the family farm. Some of her chores would included feedinganimals, driving tractors, driving trucks, harvesting crops, and milking cows. From the time she was young, she was up each morning milking cows till it was time to catch the bus to go the school. Then after school each day it was back to the farm and chorestill the end of the day. This is where she grew up learning about the value of hard work and serving others.
If other people around them needed help, she was sent to help them till the job was done. If people in the ward needed help, the same rule applied. She would off times say, “When you live ina small community, everyone just has to help and pitch in, that’s the only way you could make it.” She grew up involved with family and others and developed a love for people which stayed with her all the days of her life.
She loved to ride horses around the farm and her favorite paint horse was named “Patches.” She usually rode him around the farm and sometimes could be found racing down the road with her friends. She loved her family, loved the farm, loved her community, and her childhood memory of all these things. And this she would cherish all the days of her life.
As Janene grew, she involved herself more and more in school sports graduating from Simms High School in Simms, Montana. This gave her a chance to prove herself in athletics where she excelledin track and field. She won many metals, achieved school records, and competed at state. She also played basketball where she was a starter on the team and became a great player. She also made the cheerleading team and enjoyed cheering and traveling around. School sports and activities also meant more time with friends and less time working on the farm each day. It was also fun to have her parents support as they came and watched and cheered her on.
After High School, she moved to Rexburg Idaho where she attended Ricks College (BYU Idaho). While there she tried out for and made the Ricks College Volleyball Team. She also played on campusintramural teams in basketball and softball. But even that wasn’t enough sports, so she also played on city softball teams in the evenings.
During her college years she worked for Porter Printing for four years. Because of her hard work ethic, she became one of their valued employees. When her department head got mad at her once,and threatened to fire her, the company fired him instead and kept Janene on the job. She saved her money and went on a three month trip to Hawaii with her best friend Samantha Williams who also worked at Porter Printing with her.
After returning home from Hawaii, she went back to work at Porter Printing who quickly hired her back. She also got highly involved with church activities and helped to run the student ward. She signed back up for sports teams again and regularly played city softball.
Then one day, a young man from Utah and his friend showed up to one of her practices. A fellow teammate told these two boys to each pick out a girl from the team and she would set them up. The young man from Utah looked over all the girls on the team and chose the girl out in left field “with the green shorts on.” The rest became history in their relationship.
Janene and her new friend Paul could be found having fun in all sorts of activities. Some of their favorites were bridge jumping into rivers, playing at sand dunes, swimming at Rigby Lake, travelingto Jackson Hole, attending church student activities, and playing games with roommates in student housing. Their relationship began as a good friendship and it never changed. They traveled to Utah and attend the new Jordan River Temple open house and laterthey were married and sealed in the same Temple.
For a short time, they stayed in Rexburg, ID but later moved to Utah and started a family. After moving a few times, they settled in Draper where Janene and Paul raised 4 children, Amy, Christopher,Jody, and Emily. As the demands of life began to mount, Paul decided to go back to school and complete a teaching degree. During these 5 years, the two of them usually only saw each other from 11:00 at night, till 7:00 in the morning as Paul also workedfull time as a custodian in a local junior high for Jordan School District.
Janene spent her time involved with her young family, friends, city sports, and church girls activities. While living In Draper, she coached and refereed church girls sports, was a leader forchurch girls camps, and taught primary. She also worked at a local farm and ranch store on weekends, and a local fruit stand as well. As her children grew, she joined the school PTA, and worked as an aid for teachers. She also began coaching her childrenin different sports.
But Janene always found time to play city sports in the evenings and could be found playing basketball, softball, and volleyball with all her friends from Draper. She just packed her kids withher everywhere she went and then spent many hours also teaching her children how to play sports at the various parks and gyms. She also organized regular basketball in the mornings with her personal sports friends at 5:00am every Tuesday and Thursday. Andthey played pickup games that were both competitive and fun. She loved these regular weekly games and even though the friends who came changed over the years, Janene remained committed and she continued playing for 30 years.
With Janene, family was always 1st and in order to get more time with Paul, she regularly took her children up to the school where he worked as a custodian and helped Paul do his custodial job. By doing this they all got to spend more time together in the evenings as a family while they worked. They would also get Paul’s cleaning route done in half the time so that he could study for his college classes the second half of his evening shift. Herhard work and service gave the family more time together and got Paul through school with good grades.
When Paul graduated form college with his teaching degree, he joined Janene in coaching - and together they coached recreation and competition sports teams for 10 more years. Some of the teamswent on to win state championships in Fast Pitch Softball and Soccer. They also won championships in Sandy City basketball.
But again, Janene always found time to spend with her family. She and Paul took the kids on many trips to Southern Utah, and to the National and State Parks, and also the mountains of NorthernUtah. Whether it was a picnic, a day trip, or a longer trip, Janene loved to get out and enjoy the outdoors. She was good at camping & cooking and she was good at recreation activities. She prepared lunches in day packs for each child, and put in plentyof snacks in for the trail. She made each trip a fun adventure. And kids loved to go! But most of all - she loved playing and exploring with her children, hiking on trails, playing in the lakes and rivers, or climbing to the top of some big rock or mountain. Janene loved the great outdoors and she made the journey fun!
Many family trips were also made around sporting events as well. And as the family grew and played competitive sports, weekend trips were made to watch the kids play in tournaments. Janenetried her best to go on all of these and never tired of watching and cheering for her children. But when the games paused, or came to an end, she always found time for recreation and fun. Janene loved to see her children experience new things and play togetheras much as possible.
Janene also loved to be with her parents and siblings too. Her extended family lived all over the West. But Janene stayed connected with them all through the years. Regular trips were madeback home to the Montana farm where her kids could be connected up with the childhood she loved. She also made regular trips to visit her siblings and parents all over Idaho, Montana, and Washington, for family reunions, baby blessings, church ordinances,sporting events, holidays, vacations, or for any other reason she could find. Janene dearly loved her extended family and would take every chance, and make every effort, to be part of them. Even if Paul had to work and could not go, she would just pack upthe kids and go anyway. Family was always number 1 with Janene, and she always found a way to be with them.
Janene also grew to love and serve Paul’s family too. And since they lived close by, she would plan fun days with them as well. And since weekends were usually the only free time, these activitiesoften included picnics, barbecues, and get togethers. The kids would meet up with their cousins and play all day long.
And since Paul’s family lived close by, most Christmas Eve’s were spent there too. Janene loved to put on events on Christmas Eve to help make Christmas Eve special. Each year she would puton plays, puppet shows, or programs - of the Christmas Story. These became productions where each of her children had parts or jobs to perform. Sometimes these productions became so fun that they were taken to primary on Sunday and performed there as well.
Occasionally however, the trips down to Paul’s parents house in Highland also included service as well. Janene would put her kids to work helping their grandparents to do all kinds of yard work. Service was important to Janene, and if anything needed to be done, she organized the project and got it done.
Janene became good friends with Paul’s family. Paul’s dad was a principal and saw her love for children. And after seeing her hard work ethic, enthusiasm, and potential, he encouraged Janeneto become a teacher on many occasions. Janene took a job for a couple of years as a special ed. aid at Altara Elementary School working with a down syndrome student (Jordan) at her father in law’s school. Janene turned this job into much more than just workingwith Jordan each day. It soon turned into working with the whole special ed department at the school, helping the classroom teacher, and bringing Jordan to her house in the evenings so that her children would learn how to work with Jordan, and to give Jordan’sparents a break too. Janene always went the extra mile and thought of others.
Janene loved to spend time with Paul. She decided to get involved with a square dance club in Draper. She pushed her reluctant husband into taking a year long class with her and she organizeda square of 3 other couples as well. She really enjoyed the time dancing with Paul and went every week. After a few months, Paul decided he liked it too and began teaching his students how to dance as well. This was the start of the two of them callinghoedowns and barn dances over the next 30 years together.
As the family grew, it became time to move. At the same time, a preschool business became available when the owner died. Seeing an opportunity, they decided to buy the house and continue thebusiness. Janene went to work right away to get the school going again. She put her heart and soul into the new school as she became the new owner and the teacher. This new school took up the whole basement of their new home. She taught 4 classes of 3and 4 year old students each week. The first year was lean while she got the business going. But with her hard work ethic and her energetic personality the business began to grow. By year two, class were full and the school was going well. Janene was happy! She had found what she truly loved to do in life! She loved working with people, and she loved working with young children. It was the perfect Job! This new school proved to be her defining career and she continued to run and teach in the school for thenext 25 years.
As the kids continued to grow, Janene’s life became very busy. In order to get her exercise, she got up at 5:00am to run 5 or more miles each day on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. On Tuesdayand Thursdays she continued to play basketball with her Draper friends. Her days were spent teaching and running the preschool school full time. And her evenings were usually spent running kids to sports and talents lessons. Weekends were often spent watchingkids sports games or tournaments. And sometimes she would also run 5 or 10 K races if time permitted. Occasionally, she would travel around with Paul to help him call hoedowns and barn dances. She also continued to play city sports and had to rely on Paulto continue getting the kids to their daily events.
Janene was also very busy with her church jobs too. She continued teaching primary, running girls camps, coaching church girls sports, refereeing church and city games, and pushed her childreninto refereeing as well to teach them how to work and be reliable. If she had any spare time she could be found gardening, cleaning, or cooking a meal from scratch, much of which came from her garden. She bottled up to 400 quarts and pints of various thingsfrom her garden each year. Janene rarely took time to stand still and was always moving to “get it all done.” Even as busy as a she was, she occasionally still found time for extended family by attending blessings, ordinations, or traveling to see her parent.
As the family continued to grow, Janene’s life got busier and busier. She attended her kids high school sports games, and even delivered dinners to them as they off-times didn’t come home afterschool. She continued to run 5 and 10K races but now pushed her kids to run them with her. On weekends she occasionally ran half marathons and ragnar races too.
Janene’s home was the communite house. Her kids and their friends would just hang out. There was always fun, food, cookouts, activities, and lively interaction. The back yard looked like andwas a playground. kids collected here and she loved it.
She continued to serve by teaching primary, and running church girls sports for the ward, stake, and region levels. She also spent many evenings running the tournaments and doing the refereeing. She was asked to take charge of the ward activities committee for 5 years and did her best to have monthly activities. She later served in various Stake Positions such as the Primary Presidency, Stake Trek Committee do all the games and dancing, and Stake Sports.
But as busy as she was, she always found time to play sports. She now began traveling each year to play 3 on 3 basketball once a year up in Spokane Washington to play sports with her extendedfamily. Organizing all the cousins and parents into many teams, they had a great time together for an entire weekend. It became a yearly tradition that lasted for many years.
As the family aged, she and Paul bought a camper and began traveling around on weekends. Janene quickly set up an extended family camp trip to Downata Hot Springs each Memorial Day that lastedfor 15 years. It became a tradition and a highlight of the year. The family also bought street bikes and enjoyed these as well. Janene really enjoyed her motorcycle and drove it everywhere. She and Paul and the kids drove bikes up to Seattle twice, Yellowstone,Canyonlands National Park, and all around Southern Utah. She drove up to Idaho and Montana to see family, and later organized a yearly trip to Jackson with Paul and her brother. Janene love to play and she loved the outdoors.
In her later years, Janene’s life took on more service. She taught the cub scouts for 12 years, continued teaching primary, she cooked for missionaries, cook for funerals, and bottle lots ofthings for her children. She volunteered for cleaning the temple, cleaning the church, and working at the church farm. Just about every service project that came her way, she would volunteer herself for - and Paul too. The two of them enjoyed temple workand would go once a week for a number of years. She use to say that, “With Paul - 1 plus 1 makes 3, because we work so well together.”
Janene was "one of a kind.” She loved spending time with Paul, traveling to visit and play with her children and grandchildren, working out each day in her exercise classes, assisting with callingtrek dances, spending time with friends, playing pickle ball, spending time with her horse, working in her garden, chatting on her electronics, and teaching preschool. Janene was connected to the whole community!
Janene taught preschool up to the last month of her life. She loved teaching and did not want to quit. She was a loving and loyal wife, and always trusted her husband to always take care ofher. She just knew that he had her best interests in mind, and she looked to him for council and wisdom in everything. Even in her last thoughts of her life, she asked her husband for his help and advice. She was deeply concerned about leaving her husband,children, grandchildren, and her parents, and just how to handle things. She also wanted help and advice for when it was time to go. Her trust and loyalty will be dearly missed. She was a wonderful daughter, sister, aunt, mother, and wife. She will bemissed by all.
What’s your fondest memory of Janene?
What’s a lesson you learned from Janene?
Share a story where Janene's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Janene you’ll never forget.
How did Janene make you smile?
