Janet Marian Reed was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Oct. 5th, 1924, to Howard and Lucy Jacobson and soon after moved to St. Paul. She enjoyed her education there and continued her love of reading long into her full life of 98 years. Excelling in school, she skipped a grade, and began winning speech, essay, and poetry contests. Along with her younger sister, her family all graduated from the University of Minnesota. Janet majored in psychology with minors in English and Labor Relations, and was a proud Delta Gamma alumna.
Friends, family, and colleagues would not be surprised to learn that Janet won a speech contest as she loved to talk and won the Jeopardy contests on the world cruises she enjoyed during retirement. Janet was accepting and welcoming with everyone. Her big smile would brighten every room she entered. She easily made new friends and was also a loyal friend as she kept in touch with her many friends and family. She had a huge filing system of greeting cards for every occasion. Her personalized and original poems for loved one’s special occasions were a delight. Until the end of her life, Janet maintained a positive attitude and sense of humor. With her unique vocabulary and lighthearted manner she had a way of making surprisingly entertaining comments and conversation.
Out of college Janet rose up quickly at Telex International Corporation after becoming the Assistant Personnel Director. Within three weeks she was promoted to Personnel Director and hired women to assemble hearing aids and other electronic products. She also screened applicants for the plant and office plus edited the Telex Park Times. She thoroughly enjoyed her short career as she would soon have to move on.
On June 14th, 1948, Janet married Dr. John Porter Reed, Jr. and as she would say, “lived happily ever after.” He was enlisted in the Navy and assigned to Warren Air Force
Base which required her to leave her position at Telex and move to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Not long after he served as Anesthesiology Resident at Ohio State Universality in Columbus, Ohio, where first daughter Lora was born in 1953. Porter was recalled for the Korean War and assigned to the National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he served as Assistant Director of the Department of Anesthesiology. Following that tour of duty he resigned his commission and became the 7th physician to join the Associated Anesthesiologists of Seattle, with whom he practiced until retirement in 1989. Janet was always supportive of his training through it all and the need to keep moving but thrilled to finally settle in one place.
In 1956 the young family grew with a second daughter, Marian Elizabeth and a son John Porter Reed, III, in 1957. From Mercer Island they moved to Bellevue and built a home in their beloved Vuecrest neighborhood in Bellevue, Washington. Janet’s favorite hobbies were composing music and writing poetry. She could hear a song, sit at the piano, and play it by ear. Along with being a mother and homemaker Janet had the energy and enthusiasm to start taking on leadership roles. She was a founding member of both the Cascade chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Eastside Republican Club. She joined the Bellevue Probus Club, was President of the Bellevue Republican Women’s Club, active in the Hilltop Luncheon Club, and Dance Elegance. As if that wasn’t enough, she continued to be elected for twenty-eight years to serve as the GOP Precinct Committee Officer for the Vuecrest neighborhood. Janet had intense interest in partisan and non-partisan politics her entire life receiving the 41st District Republican of the year in 1980.
Janet and Porter began going on world cruises once he retired. They traveled extensively, loving the experience, and the many friends they made around the world; also keeping in contact with friends and neighbors from Bellevue and around the country.
Janet is preceded in death by her husband of 68 years, Porter, her parents, and sister Marjorie Knoblauch. She is survived by her daughters Lora Ford (John), Marian Hudson (Larry), and son John Reed, grandchildren Ira Ford, Taylor Hudson, Royce and Nadia Reed, plus great grandsons Clark Reed and RJ Reed.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances can be made to the non- profit Freedom Foundation in Olympia, WA, https://www. freedomfoundation.com/, or a cause of your choice.
A memorial will be planned at a later date and she will join husband Porter at the Tahoma National Cemetery.
