Obituary of Janet Luella Burns

Janet Luella Burns passed away in her La Porte, Texas home on Monday, September 11, 2023. She was born on December 6, 1933, in Altoona, PA to Albert and Naomi Stoner (nee Brandt).  The Stoners carried their Pennsylvania Dutch heritage to Florida where Janet attended and graduated from St. Petersburg High School.  At 5’2 with eyes of blue, Jan was a local beauty pageant queen, and in 1952 she met and married the love of her life for over 70 years, Frederick T. Burns. Fred was also from St. Petersburg and newly discharged from the US Air Force. Their life together began with Jan attending business school in Gainesville FL as Fred attended the University of Florida.

By the time Fred graduated, the Burns family would become 5 with the birth of Thomas, Stephen, and Debra. The children spent their early years in Ft. Worth Texas where Jan instilled in them her love of reading and the piano, worked nights to help support the newly minted family, and spent annual vacations visiting Jan and Fred’s families in St. Pete.  The family joined the Race to Space in 1962 by moving to La Porte and setting up their household in Bay Colony.  All three children would grow up on Galveston Bay and graduate from LPHS in the early 70’s. Jan would work during this time as the sole print typist and proofreader for the Bayshore Sun newspaper. Her extensive knowledge of the English language and shorthand skills would serve her in the next two decades where she worked as an executive secretary to engineers supporting NASA to include Pan American Airways. This affiliation allowed Jan and Fred to travel the world together in their later years.

Jan is survived by her son Thomas Burns of Shalimar, FL, and Daughter Debbie Couch (Cotton) of Lomax.  Jan would welcome into the world 7 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.  They will remember her as an adventurous soul sitting as a girl in her favorite banyan tree reading a Nancey Drew mystery and as a devoted mother, wife, and grandmother.  She will forever be an inspiration for a life well led to all who knew her.