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Obituaries
Clara Janice Gingerich
Clara Janice Gingerich, 90, of Newport News, Virginia, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday morning, January 17, 2024.
Janice was born and raised in Utah. She graduated from Weber HS, St. Marks School of Nursing in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the University of Oregon at Portland with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. After schooling, she returned to Utah to work in a hospital where she met her future husband, Lamont Gingerich of Spanish Fork, Utah. Together, they built an amazing life; they raised five children while Lamont’s work relocated the family to New York, Florida, Texas, North Africa, England, and finally the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Never one to just sit at home, Janice was always up for an adventure, fully exploring every place she lived and making friends everywhere she went. She tried to live by her mother’s motto: “Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be pleasant if it kills you.”
After her children left home, she went back to work as a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. After retiring from nursing, she continued to serve those in her community and within her church as a volunteer at the local library, the Family History Center, as a missionary in the Marshall Islands, and in the Washington D.C. Temple. She loved to garden with Lamont, enjoyed canning and preserving the bounteous harvest, and was the master jam maker of the family. Janice loved doing crosswords and was an avid reader as well as a quilter and seamstress; she would either have a book or a crocheting needle in her hand if you caught her sitting down.
Janice was preceded in death by her parents Miriam and David McDowell, her sisters Lottie McDowell and Joann (James) Pingree, her brother Douglas McDowell, and her beloved husband of 57 years Lamont Gingerich.
Left to cherish her memory are her sister Louella (Fred) Ash of Sandy, Utah; her children Monice Green (Richard) of Bellevue, Nebraska; Ilene Harless (Terry) of Newport News, Virginia; Margaret Toney (Brian) of West Point, Utah; Danielle White (Peter) of Newton, Kansas; and David Gingerich (Tami) of Monument, Colorado. She had six grandchildren (Margaret, Krista, Ryan, Megan, James, and Emily) and four great-grandchildren (Rylee, Harper, Reagan, and Haylee).
A viewing will be held Wednesday, January 24, 2024, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Peninsula Funeral Home located at 11144 Warwick Blvd, Newport News, Virginia. Funeral services will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chapel at 902 Denbigh Blvd, Newport News, Virginia, on Thursday, January 25, 2024, starting at 11:00 a.m.
A separate viewing will be held at the Lindsay-Jobe Funeral Home, located at 3343 Route 130, Harrison City, Pennsylvania 15636, on Friday evening, January 26, 2024. Internment is at the Penn-Lincoln Memorial Park in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, at 11:00 a.m. on January 27, 2024.
Arrangements are under the care of Peninsula Funeral Home.
6 Comments
I don’t have many memories of my Aunt Janice, since she didn’t live near me, but I sure do remember my mom, Joann, sharing Grandma Mac’s motto! Thanks for sharing that. I have thought about Mom and Dad, and Janice and Lamont, and Cameron and Dianna, and Lottie, and Grandma and Grandpa’s reunion. I’m grateful to know that families, and life, are eternal. May God bless you all at this time!
I remember my Aunt Janice with smiles. She didn’t come by very often, but it was always exciting when she came. I remember when she was dating LaMont, and that he was a very nice, tall man. I remember when she lived in Egypt, and thought that was very exotic. I remember when she brought Mother a tray from Egypt that hung on our downstairs wall! It was cool! I remember her laugh and her smiley face. Because she and LaMont lived far from us, I don’t remember much with the cousins, except when Margaret and Ilene lived in a very upstairs (attic-it felt like to me) apartment in Provo. I’m happy for her passing so she can be with Mother and Dad, Cameron and Diana, Lottie, and Grandma and Grandpa McDowell. Happy times now!
This sister was always nice to my mother and me. She’s with Lamont now.
My deepest love and prayers are with you
Janice and Lamont welcomed us to the Pittsburgh 3rd Ward, and became our good friends. I served as their Home Teacher for a while, visited them in their home, and sat with them at many church events and activities. Janice was so kind, and yet a bit feisty, always adding a smile or a laugh. Janice was genuinely funny, and fun to be around. She never lacked for friends of all ages. I learned a lot from her as a teacher of the Gospel. Her Sunday School class contributions were always spot on. I am glad Janice had these last years with family and friends, and passed peacefully.
Janice always loving and wanting to know how my older children were als they moved away to college and marriages. She told me when the Giles left she could hear wedding bells in the distance and she was happy for me. She was right both girls got married after college and a mission. I’m happy that she is with Lamont they were never without each other and his passing took a few sparks out of her smiling eyes!!! Till we meet again dear Janice!!!