Janet Kanarr

January 13, 1951 – January 18, 2007

Janet, in her professional life, was owner of her own direct sales and marketing business. Referring to herself as ‘The Junk-Mail Queen of San Diego” she often said, “if you got it in your mail box, I probably had something to do with it.”

Janet passed away after a short illness.

First Kiss

Janet Kanarr and I got to know one another starting in the 5^th grade at Isaac Newton Jr. High School. We were at the Jr. High because there wasn’t room for us at the existing elementary school (Peabody).

At some point in time we started to like one another. I remember going over to her house quite often. I don’t ever remember seeing her parents there. I liked going over to her house. They had a piano with a metronome on top. Seems like I played with that thing for hours and hours. Her house was two story. They didn’t have two story houses in my neighborhood and in fact hers was the first two story house I was ever in.

It was probably in the 6^th or 7^th grade when one time I went over to her house she had a friend there. Can’t remember who it was. Maybe this story will jog someone’s memory. Anyway during my visit it was decided that Janet and I should kiss. Her friend was included in the discussion and in fact when I think back on this I think it was all planned out by Janet and her friend before I even showed up. The bedrooms were upstairs in her house. We would go upstairs to her bedroom to kiss there (no friend included).

I followed Janet up to her room and we stood there for a minute or two and then came together to kiss. I remember vividly opening my eyes during our kiss and seeing Janet staring straight at me. Eyes wide open with a curious expression and that red hair all around her face. Felt pretty weird to me. We (or I) pretty much ended our kiss right then. I had not thought about this for years and years but when I heard about Janet’s passing it came back to me pretty strong. This was actually the first time that I kissed a girl. In thinking back on it I think Janet was just curious to see what it would feel like to kiss somebody. Nothing more than that.

I remember Janet all though high school but I do not think we ever went out. Our first kiss was also our last kiss.

Janet always seemed like a free spirit. During college days Dennis Stouffer said he ran into Janet up at Ft. Collins quite a bit. I remember him saying that whenever he saw her she was always laughing, always laughing.

I’ll really miss not spending time with Janet at the upcoming reunion. We could have laughed over our first Kiss.

David Glass

I had the opportunity to spend time with Janet and get to know her at student council meetings our senior year. She was beautiful, smart, fun and funny. I was so sorry to hear of her passing.

Sheryl Emery Ogden

She was just as nice as she was beautiful.

Carol Longtain Brzeczek