Janice M. Manning

BARRE – Janice Mary (French) Manning, 84, of Sunnyside Drive passed away on Thursday, December 7, 2017 at the Woodridge Nursing Home in Berlin.

Born June 1, 1933, at the Barre City Hospital, she was the daughter of Cyril and Evangeline (Maker) French.

Janice attended school in Plainfield and graduated from Plainfield High School as Valedictorian of the class of 1951. After high school, she attended and graduated from the Barre City Hospital Nursing School in the class of 1954.

On June 25, 1955, Janice married the love of her life, Douglas J. Manning at the Presbyterian Church in Barre. She met her husband through her future sister-in-law Pearl Brooks and fell in love with him on their first date. After their marriage they resided at their “Gentlemen’s Farm” on Bolster Road in Lower Websterville for over 50 years, raising their three daughters and a menagerie of animals.

Janice was employed at the Barre City Hospital and later Central Vermont Hospital as a labor and delivery nurse and then was the school nurse at Barre Town Elementary School.

She was a member of the Rebekah Hastings Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a Deaconess of the Websterville Baptist Church where she also taught Sunday school, and a member of the Lower Websterville Home Dem Club.

Janice loved her Lord, her husband, family and every kind of animal. As a child she loved kittens, and as an adult loved her oxen and the outdoors, especially going camping. She enjoyed raising chickens, gardening, knitting, and snowmobiling.   Her faith was so important to her that she prayed about everything and for everyone.

Survivors include her daughters, Mary (Manning) Haynes and her husband, Larry of Barre; Susan (Manning) Hansmeier and her husband, Eric of Keene, NH; and Sara (Manning) Rochefort and her husband, Michael of Panama City, FL; her grandchildren Rebecca (Haynes) Geno, William Haynes, Matthew Rochefort, Jessica (Hansmeier) Bullock, Jennifer Rochefort, Sally (Haynes) Armantrout, and Thomas Hansmeier; and twelve great-grandchildren.

In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her brother J. Cyril French; grandson Jeffrey Haynes; and great-grandchild Angel Haynes.

The service to honor and celebrate her life will be held on Monday, December 11, 2017, at 11:00 a.m. at the Websterville Baptist Church, 143 Church Hill Road, Websterville. Family and friends may call on Sunday, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Hooker Whitcomb Funeral Home, 7 Academy Street, Barre. Entombment will be in the Hooker and Whitcomb Vault to await later interment in the Wilson Cemetery in Websterville.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Woodridge Patient Activity Fund, PO Box 550, Barre, VT 05641 or the Websterville Christian Academy, PO Box 1, Websterville, VT 05678.