Janice A. Bartley

Janice Arneta Briggs Bartley passed away peacefully on September 11, 2025, after a long journey with Alzheimer’s disease. Up until the end, Janice maintained her appreciation of beauty, love of family, and deep faith in God.

Janice’s Celebration of Life, a family and friends gathering, will be held Saturday, October 4, 2025. We will gather between 2:00 and 4:30 p.m., with reflections beginning at 2:30 p.m. Drop in as you can. Please join us at the Alumni Center at Baker University, 519 8th St., Baldwin City, KS 66006.

In lieu of flowers, please send your support to Elderhaus, where Mama spent her days in the last years of her life, being supported by this wonderful organization.

https://elderhaus.org/home/get-involved/giving (Designate in memory of Janice Bartley)

Janice’s life can best be encapsulated by the acronym FAITH: Faithful, Active, Imaginative, Talented, and Hopeful. In her 86 years with us, she exuded an abundance of each.

Faithful to Dreams

Janice was born in Dodge City, Kansas, on December 2, 1938. She was one of eight children born to Raymond and Opal (Nicolay) Briggs. Janice moved to Topeka, KS, as a young child, where she lived for most of her life. Janice graduated from Topeka High School in 1956. While in high school, she participated as an active member of the exclusive Madrigal Choir. Janice loved singing and had a beautiful soprano voice.

Upon graduation, Janice enrolled in Stormont School of Nursing to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. Around the same time, Janice met the man who would become her husband, Francis M. Bartley of Hiawatha, KS. She dreamed of marrying on September 2nd, her parents and her eldest sister’s wedding anniversary. However, the headmaster of her nursing school was upset that she had not completed the full year of school before marriage — she was one day too early to meet that requirement. The headmaster would not let her off her surgical clinical rotation, so she worked up until just two hours before her wedding, scrubbed into an extensive surgery, before she was finally allowed to head to First Church of the Nazarene to marry Francis on September 2, 1958. Janice completed her nursing degree in 1961.

Throughout her life, Janice worked as a nurse. She began at Dr. Parman’s and Dr. Crouch’s office as a pediatric nurse. After a few years, she transitioned to working for her parents at the Samaritan Nursing Home as their charge nurse. Eventually, Janice went to work as a drug and alcohol counselor nurse for the Topeka VA hospital, where she retired in 2006. She was proud to be known as the “good nurse” by those she served.

Janice and Francis maintained a loving and supportive marriage throughout the 58 years they were granted until Francis’ death on November 6, 2016. Between September 1959 and September 1965, they welcomed four children together — Francis, Michelle, Melinda, and Michael. Together they traveled across the United States and to several countries around the world. They enjoyed spending time as a family, with friends of the family, and with their church family. Janice excelled in creating a welcoming home. Her family meant the world to her.

Janice encouraged creativity and warmth in her children, supporting them in all of their life’s adventures. She was their leader or co-leader in groups, attended countless ballgames, piano recitals, wrestling meets, scout meetings, concerts, plays, and track and gymnastics meets, all while working. Even after her children grew and left home, she remained deeply involved in their lives.

Janice maintained an open-door policy that extended far beyond family. Friends, neighbors, and even strangers were always welcomed into her home. Janice allowed all kinds of other additions to her home too: gerbils, birds, frogs, snakes (maybe not welcomed, but allowed), bunnies, and even a raccoon! Janice wanted everyone to know they were welcome and she was faithful to that until the very end.

Janice is survived by her children: Francis (Lois) Bartley Jr., Michelle (Steve) Tucker, Melinda (Geoffrey) Alleyne, and Michael Bartley. She’s also survived by her brother, Raymond (Ann) Briggs, and her sister Iris Turner.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Francis M. Bartley Sr.; her parents, Raymond and Opal Briggs; and her siblings Bryon Briggs, Aletha (Lonnie) Bevens, Doretha (Bill) Williamson, Charlene (Calvin Wilson, John Cooper) Cooper, and Charlotte (Kenny) Gibson.

Active Participant in her Faith

More than anything, Janice was a faithful follower of Christ. She served in multiple Nazarene churches, leading in the children’s and drama departments, teaching in Vacation Bible School, and singing in choirs, small ensembles, and as a soloist in the music ministry.

Janice supported her husband’s ministry as the director for Youth for Christ. Many sacrifices were made so that he could continue to serve Christ in a way that he had felt called. She helped type support letters and prepare mailers, often late into the night. She helped raise funds for the ministry and encouraged Francis when he felt discouraged. In his later years, she supported him in organizing and participating in community ministries.

Janice spent countless hours in prayer for those she knew and loved. It was important to her to make sure they knew she was praying for them. Janice would cry when they cried and rejoice when they did, often sacrificing her own comfort so they knew she cared. Janice got up in the early hours of the morning and spent time in devotion and prayer.

Imaginative

The crowning joy of Janice’s life was the arrival of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. She was deeply engaged in their lives and enjoyed traveling to visit them as often as possible.

According to the beautiful words of one of them, “Grandma filled our childhood with love in the most ordinary, extraordinary ways. I remember her home-cooked meals and Thanksgivings packed with cousins, all of us finding places to sleep — even under the table, pretending we were camping. She created “Grandma’s Sewing Camp”, taught me to make deviled eggs, and let me sleep in her room when I was scared. She cried every single time we said goodbye. She watched us make snowmen in the yard and allowed us to turn her “creepy” basement into whole new worlds where we played for hours. She was steady when life wasn’t. She never missed a birthday until Alzheimer’s took away her calendar. She was constant, generous, and full of quiet magic. I’ll carry her love with me always.” Another one of her grandchildren said, “the most important thing she would say to us, and I know there are many outside of her family that heard these beautiful words in secret was, “I know I didn’t have to”. That is the kind of unconditional love I will always remember…”.

Also surviving Janice are her grandchildren, Casey (Bryan) Woodward, Francis Bartley III, Kelly (Johnny) Meadows, Sarah (Thomas) Hoover, Shaun (Helaina Le) Tucker, Janice (Kris) Rawls, Joshua Alleyne, Hannah Alleyne, Alethia (Kevin) Garrett, Michaela (Zaq Pierce) Bartley, and Abriana (Noland) Bayer; her great- grandchildren, Shauna Woodward, Bryan Woodward Jr., Dana Woodward, Titus (Ashlynn) Woodward, Cailynn Woodward, Bryan (Jessica) Woodward III, Isaac Bartley, Alexander Bartley, Emily Meadows, Hattie Meadows, Cade Meadows, Allison Hoover, Molly Hoover, Charles Hoover, Vera Garrett, Harvey Garrett, Otto Pierce, Finley Bayer, and Moriah Rawls; her great-great grandchildren Shalynn Woodward, Eileithyia Woodward, Kingsten Woodward, Tatem Woodward, Easton Woodward, Ben Jr. Woodward, Bryan Woodward III, Harlow Woodward, Oliver Woodward, and Blakelynn Woodward.

She was preceded in death by her grandson Zechariah Alleyne.

Talented

Janice was talented and creative. She was known to have sewn many items throughout her lifetime, including baby items, clothing, coats, wedding dresses, christening gowns, and quilts. She was also an accomplished baker. She loved baking cookies for her church’s fundraiser every year. She would start months ahead of time, making dozens and dozens of cookies and loaves of sweet breads to donate. There was always an abundance of cookies, peanut butter balls, and sweet breads for family gatherings too.

Throughout her life, Janice enjoyed hobbies like photography, macramé, crafting, pottery, crochet, and needlepoint. It wasn’t unusual to find her picking up a new hobby and exploring many creative outlets. The thing Janice did best though, was include her children, her grandchildren, and even her neighbor’s children in the process, instilling creativity and joy in them as well. She loved children and spent her lifetime including them in whatever she was doing.

Hopeful

Janice appreciated all that life gave her. In her later years, she moved to her daughter, Michelle’s, house in Colorado. Michelle and her husband cared for her for several years, later joined by Francis and his wife, Lois. While there, Janice attended the Elderhaus Memory Day Program. Even as her memory failed her, she quickly made friends with several other participants. She enjoyed taking walks in the community, talking with neighbors, and petting all the dogs along the path that she could find. She enjoyed many trips to the mountains — she even somehow convinced the wild deer to come to her so that she could pet them! She enjoyed attending church and really loved her time with her eldest son singing both oldies and gospel music each evening. She spoke of the hope of the future that heaven would bring her.

Until she lost the ability to talk, Janice would express how grateful she was to have lived a long life full of wonderful experiences, a loving family, many good friends, and compassionate caregivers. In the later hours of her life, she spoke of heaven and being taken up by Jesus to live there. Alzheimer’s took the memory of so many from her, but she never forgot that she loved and was loved by Christ. She lived a life full of hope. She truly embodied the adage of a life well lived.