Janice Sloan
January 2, 1937 ~ January 15, 2022
Janice Franklin Sloan, of Danville, passed away on January 15, 2022 surrounded by her loving family. She was 85 years old.
She is survived by her husband of sixty-four years, James Joseph (“JJ”) Sloan, and by their six children: Suzanne (Morey-Sloan); Colleen (Jones), Michael, Gregory, Thomas, and Patricia; as well as her three sisters: Barbara Franklin and Phyllis Bloome, both of Morrisonville, and Kay Franklin, of Estes Park, Colorado. She is also survived by 8 beloved grandchildren: Meredith, Melissa, Siobhan, Rhiannon, Lukas, Mathilde, Ash, and Carolina; and one great-grandchild, Sloan.
Janice was born January 2, 1937, in Taylorville, to Lowell and Ina Mae (Deal) Franklin, and raised on the family farm. As a young girl, Janice attended Cottonwood Grade School, a one-room country school near Morrisonville, and later Morrisonville High School, graduating in 1954. After high school, she attended the University of Illinois for a year, taking courses in Home Economics. She later worked for Gilbert Large Chevrolet in Taylorville. At twenty, she became engaged to her high school sweetheart, James, who was enlisted in the Marine Corps and stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Clemente, California. After a four month engagement, the couple were married at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in San Clemente on April 20, 1957. For the rest of her life, Janice reminisced about their wonderful “extended honeymoon” in California.
After James was honorably discharged from the Marines a few years later, the couple moved to Springfield, where they welcomed their first four children. After settling permanently in Danville in 1966, Janice and Jim had two more children. While her husband started his own insurance adjustment business, Janice worked tirelessly to raise their children, four of whom were born before her twenty-fifth birthday! Janice spent fifty-three years of her life in Danville, devoting all of her time to her husband and family. She and Jim were longtime parishioners of St. Paul’s Catholic Church; Janice found profound faith in the Church, prompting her conversion to Catholicism in 1970. At eighty, Janice discovered a newfound love of exercise, and took up gym workouts and daily, six-mile walks. Throughout her life, she remained in active communication with all of her children and grandchildren as they traveled and found homes in far-flung places.
She will be remembered by those who loved her for her love of learning and literature, her wide knowledge of plants and flowers, her fondness for Colorado blue skies and purple mountains, her sharp wit and sense of humor, her tenacity, her love of babies and small children, and her compassion.
Visitation for Danville area friends will be held from 4:00-7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 19, 2022, at the Sunset Funeral Home & Cremation Center, 3940 N. Vermilion Street, Danville, IL 61834.
Visitation for Morrisonville area friends will be held from 5:00-7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 21, 2022, at the Perfetti-Assalley Funeral Home, 304 Carlin Street, Morrisonville, IL 62546.
Funeral Mass: 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 22, 2022, at St. Maurice Catholic Church, 706 SE 4th Street, Morrisonville, IL 62546, with Rev. John C. Burnette as celebrant.
Interment will follow mass at St. Maurice Catholic Cemetery in Morrisonville.
For those who would like to donate in memory of Janice, memorial gifts may be given to the Morrisonville High School, 204 N. Perrine St., Morrisonville, IL 62546, or St. Maurice Catholic Church, 706 SE 4th St., Morrisonville, IL 62546.
The family has entrusted Perfetti-Assalley Funeral Home in Morrisonville with ceremonies.
Please visit www.assalleyfuneralhomes.com to share memories of Janice, or offer condolences to her family.
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Janice was such a kind soul who loved to visit with her many nieces and nephews at family gatherings. She always wanted to know what was going on in our lives. Too few family gatherings the past 5 years – I have missed the visiting.