Janice Evelyn Baldwin, age 83, of Greenville, Illinois, passed away at her home on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.
The family plans to celebrate her life with a service at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, May 31, 2025, at the Donnell - Wiegand Funeral Home. Visitation will be held from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Interment will be in Noffsinger Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Noffsinger Cemetery or the local Lemuel Rhoads Cancer Foundation.
Born in Pleasant Mound, Illinois, on June 26, 1941, to Hobart E. and Evelyn V. (née Wheatley) Baldwin, Janice attended elementary school in Pleasant Mound. She went to junior high and three years of high school in Mulberry Grove, graduating in 1959 after her senior year at Vandalia High School. Post high school, she took business administration courses at Kaskaskia College in Centralia.
Janice lived a life of quiet influence, forged in faith, dedication, and loving service to others. Still a teenager when her father died, she became a surrogate mother to her seven younger siblings, enabling their mother to work outside the home to support the family.
In 1966, Janice began a long career at DeMoulin’s, working in various departments. When others needed help, she prepared notebooks documenting best methods, complete with drawings and descriptions. She loved the work and became a skilled sewing machine operator in the embroidery department. She took pride pointing out on television any band uniforms she had helped create, including some in Rose Bowl Parades and also in the opening ceremony for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She retired from DeMoulin’s in 2023, after more than 56 years of employment.
When asked to write a history of Pleasant Mound (also called Fairview), she fondly remembered frequenting her parents’ country store there and learning about the community. Having no publishing background, and still working full time, she took on the challenge as a service to others. Beyond sharing her own memories, she researched, solicited stories and pictures, enlisted others, and found a publisher. She drew a town map with site numbers because there were no house numbers. The map enabled readers to locate former residents’ homes. She also provided a name index. The 208-page book, Pleasant Mound: Fairview—Glimpses & Memories of a Little Farm Town That Flourished,was published in 2012.
Janice enjoyed being part of the Greenville Free Methodist Church where, for a time, she worked in the basement nursery. When she noticed that the children wanted to see outside but were too small, she built them a platform with small steps and handrails on both ends, so they could step up and look out the window. The kids loved it.
Faith mattered to Janice. She knew God and Jesus, God’s Son. She believed Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead. She knew that following God would end in eternal life with God. She read the Bible through at least seven times and did her best to live by it.
Janice was preceded in death by her parents, a sister Lenora Lee (in infancy), a sister-in-law Joan (Gerald Baldwin), a brother-in-law Michael Hazelip (Diana), and two infant sons of her sister Joyce Kimbro (Gary): Clayton Vance and Loren Todd.
Janice is survived by seven siblings: Francis W. Baldwin (Roberta), Joyce B. Kimbro (Gary), Carmen B. Trenton (Ted), Katy B. Wise (Howard), Gerald E. Baldwin (Stephanie Carpenter), Conrad E. Baldwin, Diana B. Hazelip; four nieces and nephews: Frank Baldwin, Elizabeth B. Sargis (Mark), Amy B. Workman, and Kimberly J. King; along with nine great nieces and nephews, and ten great-great nieces and nephews.
Janice was an endearing soul to her family on earth, who will miss her signature holiday marshmallow-cranberry salad and her easy smile, as she softly said, “Bless you.”
Donnell - Wiegand Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. Share a memory, condolence to the family or picture by visiting www.donnellwiegand.com
