6/15/1954 – 3/27/2024
Baldwin City
Janet Louise Ashburn, 69, of Baldwin City, Kansas, passed away on March 27, 2024.
She was born Janet Louise Evans on June 15, 1954, at 3:27 pm, at the Delaware County Hospital, Drexel Hill, Upper Darby Twp, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, to John Lloyd Evans and Violet Mae Evans née Campbell. Janet graduated from Flushing High School in Flushing, Michigan in 1972, and received her Bachelor of Music Education from Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, Berea, Ohio, in 1976. She married William Ashburn, of Delaware, Ohio on July 9, 1978 (divorced 2012). They moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1979 where she continued her education at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas starting in 1980.
Janet worked as a paraprofessional with students with intellectual disabilities at Central Junior High School in 1980 and then Cordley Elementary School from 1980 until 1995, both in Lawrence, Kansas (USD 497). From 1995 to 2020, she worked for the West Franklin School District (USD 287) as a music teacher with all grade levels in both Pomona and Williamsburg, Kansas. She ended her career teaching her favorite age group, elementary grades, at Williamsburg, where she enjoyed exposing her students to all types of music, including Mozart opera.
Janet was a life long musician playing in many groups. In high school she spent her summers at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan. While living in Ohio she played in the Cleveland Womens Orchestra in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Lakeland Civic Band in Kirtland, Ohio. While living in Kansas, she studied under Dr. Lawrence Maxey and played in the University of Kansas Symphonic Band, the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra in Lakeside, Ohio, the Lawrence City Band from 1980 to 2023, the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, the Lawrence Chamber Players, Cottonwood Winds (Lawrence) with Stuart Levine, the Lawrence Woodwind Quintet, Theatre Lawrence, the Lawrence Arts Center, the Lawrence New Horizons Band, the Donald Mueller Theatre Players (Lawrence, Kansas and Baldwin City, Kansas), and the Northland Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City both in Parkville, Kansas. Over the years she did many free lance gigs in Cleveland, Ohio, Lawrence, Kansas, Topeka, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri areas. At this time her professional Bb and A clarinets are finding new homes with other serious musicians so they may keep playing music.
Janet lived with her partner, Patrick L. Cavanaugh Sr. from the end of her first marriage until shortly before her death. In 2021, she moved with Patrick and her daughter Christine to Baldwin City, Kansas where she spent her free time feeding her wild birds and tending to her extensive garden when she was not cooking or practicing.
Janet passed away peacefully at home with her daughter present after battling primary peritoneal cancer. Part of her ashes were spread on Kuwohi of Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina on August 15, 2024, along with her oldest sister Mary’s. Later more will be spread at Lakeside, Ohio, and in Michigan.
Janet’s celebration of life was held on the evening of July 27, 2024 at her home in Baldwin City. Family, friends, colleagues, and former students attended and the Tequa Trio, formed of three of her former students, performed.
Janet was a member of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Lawrence, Kansas. She is survived by her daughter Christine Ashburn of Lawrence, Kansas; sister Eleanor Fleetwood née Evans, of Gaylord, Michigan; and nephews Ahren Lehnert of Oakland, California; and Brad Fleetwood of Ontario, Canada. She is preceded in death by her parents John and Violet Evans, and oldest sister Mary Evans.
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