Janice was born to Avonelle and Dean Rash on September 18, 1934, the middle child of nine. She was a gentle and shy bookworm who fell in love with Carroll Walters, a Marine serving in Korea. When he returned from overseas, they married and began a family with Carolyn, followed by Cindy and finally Kevin, and she enjoyed the happiest years of her life. She loved taking care of her “babies” and prided herself on keeping them clean, safe, and well-fed.

Janice remarried in May of 1973. She and Richard Thorson became grandparents before they were forty and rose to the occasion, raising children and grandchildren for the next fifty years. They shared a faith in the Lord and were members of Fellowship Baptist Church in Marshalltown. They built two homes, each one professionally decorated by Janice. She had an impeccable eye and knew exactly what to choose in tile and wallpaper, window treatments and linens. She loved reading her Bible and decorating magazines; she took long walks several times a week. Oh, and coffee. How she loved her coffee.

Janice took care of everyone, especially her husband Dick during his long decline, visiting him daily in the nursing home and taking home his laundry to wash and deliver the next day. She was her mother’s caregiver, too, and did everything she could to make her safe and comfortable in her last years at home.

Perhaps Janice’s greatest legacy is that when she lost her husband, her home, her state, and many of her memories, she didn’t complain. She adjusted beautifully to her new life in Texas. She cheerfully cleared tables, swept, and washed dishes when she wasn’t too occupied caring for those less able, making sure they were fed and warm, encouraging them with a pat and a kind word. The staff loved her, too. She asked them questions about their jobs and told them they were pretty. It was the very sunset of her life, but she was still giving.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her husbands, and her siblings Joyce Johnson, Jim Rash, Clyde Rash, Sharon Doe, and siblings-in-law Gunnar, Betty, Don, and Ron. Janice is survived by her sisters Barbara Coen, Marian Coen, Carol (Tom) Fahey and Linda (Bill) Pilkington; her children, Carolyn (David), Cindy, and Kevin (Brenda), her grandchildren Jennifer Jensen Wallach, Aaron Jensen, Jamie Jensen, Brandon Mann, Emma Mann, Charlie Mann, Benjamin Walters, Jason Walters, David Walters and several great grandchildren. Janice is also survived by her stepchildren Kim Carney and Joel Thorson and two grandchildren Melissa and Candy and their children. She is Aunt Janice to a score of nieces and nephews across the country.

A celebration of life and graveside service will be held on May 25, 2024 at Miller Cemetery in Union, Iowa.