Janis Orange

Janis Margaret Taylor Orange

68, of Lowell, IN, was born in Lowell on December 22nd, 1956 to Victor L. Taylor and Paulette H. (Eich) Taylor. She was the seventh of ten children raised on her family’s farm just east of town. Janis very-much enjoyed ‘homestead-life’ spending time with her father & brothers and assisting her mother & sisters with household chores & activities.  When her mother died in 1974, Janis played an important role in caring for her younger siblings and supporting her father throughout the challenging transition.

After graduating from Lowell High School in 1978, Janis worked in the field of cosmetology choosing to hold her Indiana Cosmetology License for nearly three decades.  Later, she achieved her Certified Nursing Assistant License working at the St. Anthony Assisted Living Facility in Crown Point, Indiana before settling into a twenty-three-year career with the Northwest Indiana Special Education Cooperative serving disabled children at Lowell Middle School and Oak Hill Elementary School.  Whether it was the elderly or the disabled, Janis’ professional career was one focused entirely on the ‘least-of-these’ populations of Lake County.

Janis was a botanist, a poet, a beekeeper, a painter, and a psalmist.  She loved the arts, softball (go Lowell Bluebirds!), classical music, travel, the beach, the Indiana State Parks, public-television, reading, Disney World, the Lowell Public Library, journaling, landscaping within her many gardens, fish-fries in Lent, dinner at The Light House, chai-tea-lattes from Starbucks, watching the weather on Channel 7, feeding-the-birds, and laying in the warm sun.  She served as the Lake County 4-H Wildlife Superintendent, a Den Mother within Cub Scout Pack 234, a children’s ministry coordinator, and a volunteer at the Buckley Homestead County Park.

Janis loved being a wife & mother!  Alongside her husband, Mike, Janis adored her three sons, four grand-children, and two daughters-in-law, orienting her life around their care and development.  She believed strongly in education, encouraging all of her sons to complete college & graduate studies and to learn about the world - experientially - through travel, reflection, and service.  She was an enduring presence at practically every baseball, basketball, Cub Scout, 4-H, and church event for which her family was involved.  Later in life, she loved to volunteer at Chris’ Park, travel to Florida to spend time with Jeremy, Cindy, and the grandchildren at the beach, and listen to Nick’s sermons either in-person or online.  Throughout it all, she most loved & adored her husband, Mike, for whom she spent only a handful of nights apart-from throughout their forty-seven-year marriage. 

Most importantly, Janis was a person of profound Christian Faith and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  A founding member of Faith Bible Church, in Creston, Indiana, Janis loved studying scripture, ministering to her family in time of grief & loss, sharing the love of God with children & the elderly, and praying for her family, community, and world which she did each-and-every-morning with her husband and son. 

Janis died peacefully after an extended fight with cancer and cancer-complications on May 25th, 2025 at 68 years old. Despite a terrible battle with cancer reaching back nearly twenty-five years, Janis’ journals testify to a woman that found tremendous gratitude toward her family & God despite the often-present health challenges and setbacks.  She frequently marveled that she was still alive and treated each day as a gift for sharing with others.  Even in her final days, she celebrated God and looked forward to the Glory & Life to come.

Janis was preceded in death by her mother, Paulette; her father, Victor; her brothers, Tom, Jim (survived by Renee), Bob (survived by Pat), and Richard (survived by Brenda). She is survived by her sons: Nicholas (Katherine), Christopher (Tracy), and Jeremy (Cynthia); her grandchildren: Wilson, Harrison, Finley, and Logan; her sisters: Mary Hayden, Barbara Parrish, Debra (Brian) Speers, Carole (Garry) Krueger, and brother Daniel as well as many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, grand-nephews and cousins.

A poem discovered within one of her journals:

Only Me by Janis Orange

My life is just a whisper,
Few souls have ever heard—
Dewdrops on a rose petal,
The song of a small brown bird. A wispy white summer cloud,
Softly floating by;
A shooting star in August,
In the black and silver sky.
A grain of shifting beach sand,
A wave upon the sea—
My life has been a hymn
Of how God loves only me.

Visitation, Thursday May 29 from 4-7 at Sheets Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Lowell, with Funeral Services Friday, 11 AM at Faith Bible Church.  Burial will follow in Lowell Memorial Cemetery.

Memorial Contributions, in addition to cards and flowers, may be made to Faith Bible Church in support of their ministries. 

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