Janice J. Pearson
Janice J. Pearson
Anamosa
Janice J. Pearson, 86, of Anamosa, IA, died Friday, June 14, 2024, at Mechanicsville Specialty Care in Mechanicsville, IA.
A Funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 am Friday, June 21, 2024, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Anamosa. Rev. Sean Smith will officiate. Burial will be held in Holy Cross Cemetery, Anamosa.
Please visit Goettschonline.com to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences with her family.
Janice Janet Schumacher was born on February 6, 1938. She was the eldest child of Walter and Jessica (Smouse) Schumacher who made their home in Coon Rapids, IA. The two sons of John and Freda Schumacher – Walter and John Jr. (“John J.”) – farmed together and Janice was close to her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.
Janice graduated from Coon Rapids High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Northern Iowa and was hired as an educator in Anamosa, where she met Anamosa native John Michael Pearson. John and Janice married on July 10, 1965, in Janice’s hometown, Coon Rapids. The couple made their home in Anamosa and had one daughter, Jennifer. Janice was displaced from home in Anamosa for medical care at the end of her life, but John and Janice were parted only by her death.
During her life, Janice had a very long career teaching language arts to multiple generations of students, spending the majority of her career teaching 7th grade English until she retired.
Janice enjoyed spending time with her family including camping and fishing trips to Lake of the Woods in Canada, boating on the Mississippi and gardening. Janice was generous with her time and frequently took on extra tasks simply to be helpful to someone. She loved writing and studying history. Janice was a member of The Daughters of the American Revolution. She volunteered at the Anamosa Penitentiary Museum for many years. She was instrumental in the addition of the Wapsipinicon State Park as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
Janice was preceded in death by her parents, and siblings Charlotte Yeager, and Thomas Schumacher.
Janice is remembered by her husband of 59 years, John, her daughter Jennifer Pearson, a sister Marlene (Leroy) Hight, a brother-in-law Alan (Beverly) Yeager, a sister-in-law Jo (Thomas) Schumacher, a special cousin Jeff Schumacher {son of John Jr. Schumacher}, sisters-in-law Mary (William) Sterba and Marilyn Binion, and other beloved extended family members including many beloved nieces and nephews and their children on both sides of the family.