Janet Elizabeth Hassard's Obituary
Janet Elizabeth Hassard, daughter of Verl Paxman Hassard and Charles Edward Hassard, was born January 10th, 1944, in Modesto, California. She died August 15th, 2024, in Elk Ridge, Utah.
Janet grew up in Modesto and Orland, California. She Graduated from Orland Joint Union High School in 1961. She then graduated from BYU with a degree in English Education in 1965. She later received a Master's degree in English from BYU.
She served a mission to the British South mission from 1968 to 1970.
She first taught in Lemoore, Calif and then on the Navajo Reservation and later in Tabiona, Utah
After a few years of teaching, she returned to Ceres, California and lived with her parents in their final years. About 7 years ago she moved to Provo, Ut
Family was always important to her. She has many nieces and nephews.
She has ‘Dozens of cousins”, as she called them, whom she loved and tried to keep in contact with. She received lots of help from her Hassard cousins when she lived in Ceres.
She received the Scouts District Award of Merit in 1994. She learned and taught many skills and hobbies to the boys and especially loved the Webelos program.
She loved her associates at her DUP camp and was active and enjoyed the lessons. She and her mother contributed stories to their library.
She diligently investigated family history and appreciated the struggles of forebears as few can who have lived easier lives than hers.
She was serving as a Foster Grandparent until school finished this June. She enjoyed working with the Kindergarten Children at Amelia Earhart School.
She loved to read and could often be found with a book or magazine. She read about everything but especially loved history and had written about Mark Twain's works. She liked to do gardening and was often found in her yard. For most of her life she had a dog. Her last, Frisky, was a great companion to her.
She collected books, rocks, stamps, coins, and insects. She loved the world around her and was always learning new things about it. She enjoyed sharing these collections with her nieces and nephews and their children and sharing what she knew.
She was a very giving person. She was always thinking of things she could give to the people she knew.
She especially loved children and older people. She made friends with them easily. She was very good at memorizing and shared her mother’s talent for reciting poetry.
Janet was an enigmatic mix of justifiable pride and self-effacement. She hated waste and was brilliantly creative in seeing what something might be good for some day. Many remember her as sweet and generous and constantly looking out for the needs of others. Yet she was never in need of assertiveness training nor unsure of her convictions. I see her prickliness and unhidden resentment of anyone or anything that made her feel less than secure, combined with an indomitable determination to do whatever struck her as needing to be done, as signs of a rare determination to live life beautifully, on her own terms, no matter what.
She once said she’d be remembered as "the one who never married". Yet she mothered many a cub scout and looked out for her neighbors whose needs she saw when others failed to notice. She has never been financially secure. Yet in the last few years has accumulated enough food storage for a whole family. I think much of her gathering instinct has been to prepare for the needs of others. To define her life by what she was not, would be unfair.
She was the brilliant student who raised everyone’s expectations of what the rest of us in the family were expected to live up to. She had exquisite tastes in literature, especially poetry. She loved good children’s literature and collected wonderful books in case of some child’s need. She was a natural born naturalist and loved nature’s most intriguing mysteries.
The last few years have been difficult as she has become mentally befuddled without losing one ounce of herself assurance nor her determination to be self-sufficient. People’s lives rarely go as they may have expected in their youth. I doubt Janet expected the difficulties nor the frustrations she has faced. But I think she always planned to be indomitable. And to me, that was her most endearing trait.
She will be missed but she is enjoying meeting all of her family, those she knew here as well as those ancestors whose lives she researched.
Memorial Services
Saturday, August 24, 11:00 AM
Lakeside 14th Ward Chapel
2530 W 299 S, Provo, UT
What’s your fondest memory of Janet?
What’s a lesson you learned from Janet?
Share a story where Janet's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Janet you’ll never forget.
How did Janet make you smile?