Janet “Jan” Lee Harvey, 80, of Sumner, died Tuesday, March 4, 2025, at the Hillcrest Home in Sumner.
Graveside services will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, March 8, 2025, at Union Mound Cemetery in Sumner with Rev. Tracy Hinkel officiating. An ice cream social will be held at the Harvey Home on Saturday, March 8 from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM. Memorials may be made to the family in honor of Jan for the Janet Harvey Memorial Showchoir Camps of America Scholarship.
Janet (Giese) Harvey, daughter of Reid and Margaret Giese, was born September 3rd, 1944, in Sumner Iowa with her twin sister, Judy, on their mother’s birthday. After graduating from North High in ’62, she went to the University of Northern Iowa, majoring in English. From ’66 – ’68, she taught 10th & 12th grade English at Davenport Central High. It was there she met Jim Harvey, a towboat captain working for Alter Barge Line. From ’68 to ’71, she had fun teaching English, folk dancing, art, and speech at the Cromwell Unit School in Independence, where she produced a variety show called Damuco (dance-music-comedy). She also served as acting principal there until the return of the real one from graduate school. Next, she went to Drake Law School, graduating in ’74, and then married the towboat captain in her parents’ home, which became her home from 2012 to the present. They lived in New Orleans until ’77 when they moved to Jim’s hometown, Vicksburg, MS. She took the Bar Exam there and was a Theater Guild member, enjoying parts in ‘The Unsinkable Molly Brown’ and ‘Oklahoma’. The couple moved back to Iowa in 1989 after their daughter, Brennan, was born. She was a member of the Sumner Theater Board, played violin with the Sumner Strings for many years, was a member of St. John Lutheran Church, a Scout leader for six years, an American History tutor & mentor, a bi-monthly columnist for the Sumner Gazette for seven years and a member of the Sumner Women’s Club.
Jan is survived by her daughter Brennan (Ly) Wilder of Bloomington, Indiana (daughter Jamie), her twin sister Judy Mennenga of Fridley, MN – with whom she had daily treasured conversations, and her sister Debi (Tom) Oliverius of Minneapolis, MN/Palm Springs, CA.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Jim.
beckermilnesrettig.com