Janice "Jan" Marie Whitacre (81) of Greenup

In the early morning hours on Thursday, January 27, 2022, Janice (Jan) Marie Whitacre left this Earth after a long battle with Alzheimers. Jan created a life history with family and friends in Massachusetts, Canada and Illinois. Her memories of these people and places were what she held dear and were at the heart of her ever-present desire to go “home”.

Jan was born on March 8, 1940, in Norwood, Massachusetts, the youngest daughter of William Enos (Eisenhauer) Eisnor and Margaret Hartson (Harding) Eisnor. Jan met James (Jim) Millard Whitacre, then a U.S. Navy Aviation Machinist Mate, on a blind date arranged by mutual friends. They were married on June 18, 1960, and resided in Massachusetts for thirteen years. Daughters Lee Margaret Whitacre and Rachel Susan Whitacre Cox (Rob M.) were born in Norwood, Massachusetts. In 1973, Jim and Jan decided to move back to Illinois to be closer to Jim's family.

Jan was a draftswoman, a profession that highlighted her beautiful penmanship and propensity for perfectionism. She also worked as a medical records keeper and dietician for a number of area nursing home facilities. When not working or caring for her family, Jan loved to go to used book sales and yard sales. She enjoyed planting trees and perennials on their two-acre homestead and feeding the vast array of birds and wildlife that visited the feeding stations she religiously maintained. Her life and actions reflected a genuine kind soul and tender heart towards the people she cared for in the nursing homes, to the pets that came in and out of her life, to the rabbits that inhabited the wild spaces in their yard. Jan spent wonderful childhood years with her older siblings both in Massachusetts and Canada. Most of her last memories were of spending summers in Canada on the farmstead of her oldest sister, Doris Eaton (Ronald), and of family holidays spent with her other siblings and their spouses, Bernie Eisnor (Virginia), Jean Johnson (Al) and Cinda Modee (Bob).

Jan is survived by her husband and two daughters; two grandchildren, Eric Beasley and Sara Beasley; brother-in law, Don Whitacre (Lynn); sister-in-law, Kathryn Hopper (Richard); many nieces and nephews; and special feline, Frankie and canines Murphie and Marlowe.

She was predeceased by her parents, in-laws Millard and Margaret Whitacre, sister, Doris, and brother, Bernie.

Arrangements for a private graveside service for immediate family are pending at Barkley Funeral Chapel in Greenup, Illinois. Jan would have wished donations to be sent to a no-kill animal shelter of the donor's choice in lieu of flowers.

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