Obituary for Janet M. Stacey

Janet was born on July 9, 1951, in Elkhorn, Wis. to Herman N. Thompson and Bernice M. (Meyer) Thompson of Delavan, Wis. She attended Delavan-Darien Public Schools and graduated with her class in 1969. After briefly working with her mother at the AJ Golf cart factory in Delavan, she soon started attending Kenosha Technical Institute in Kenosha, Wis., where she would meet her future husband, Roy H. Stacey of Williams Bay, Wis. and made some lifelong friends along the way. Janet was a huge Beatles fan, along with other groups from the 60’s and music played a large role in both of their lives, as Roy started collecting music when he was only 5 years old. Roy and Janet were married on July 6, 1974, at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Delavan, Wis. They moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where Roy worked for the Western Weighing and Inspection Bureau as a Travel Agent / Auditor. Roy and Janet were blessed with the birth of their son, Paul B. Stacey in May of 1975.

Janet and Roy both worked in various jobs in various places as the economy soured and changed in the mid 1970’s into the early 1980’s. Over the course of her life, as the circumstances changed, Janet learned many different skills at many different jobs. From office work at the old Playboy Club and Lounge in Lake Geneva, Wis. to data entry at EDS to the Society of Agronomy, both in Madison, Wis. to Gundersen Health Plan in Onalaska, Wis., where she retired from at the end of 2012. As the family moved around more than a few times, Janet helped keep things organized and kept her fingers on the pulse of the happenings in her family as the times changed.

Janet had a quiet, friendly way about her, usually quick with a smile, and she was well liked among her co-workers and colleagues. She was quite spiritual, and she was throughout her life. For years, she worked at whatever ‘flavor’ our church was, wherever we were living, doing whatever was needed at the time. Whether it was cooking, cleaning, organizing a bake sale, cooking meatballs for the old ‘Meatball Suppers’ at the Rockland United Methodist Church, helping to serve meals at the church, doing whatever was needed to ‘Keep the Lights On’, as they say. As a mother, she was determined enough to find a children’s version of the Bible, and when her son was around 4 or 5 years old, she thought it was important enough to read that book cover to cover to him at nighttime before bed. She wanted to make sure that her son had an understanding, in words that HE could understand, of who God is. She had a friendly, open and loving way of looking at the world and at life itself. She will be missed tremendously by those who knew and loved her.

Janet is survived by her son, Paul Stacey of Rockland, Wis.; her sister Marilyn and her husband Dennis Engler of Plymouth, Mich.; her nephew Brandon Engler and family of Livonia, Mich.; her niece Kristen Engler and family of Northville, Mich., along with other relatives and many, many friends. Janet was preceded in death by her mother, Bernice Thompson; her father Herman Thompson; her maternal grandparents and her husband, Roy.

Memorial Services will be held at a later date.

Online condolences may be offered to her family at this site.