Fall was Mom’s favorite season. The bright oranges, reds, and yellows complimented her flaming auburn hair. It was the season for the landmarks of her life: her birth; marriage; the death of her life partner of 75 years; and 2 weeks later, her death. Ruby Janice Jacobs Klein entered this world, October 24, 1926, as the daughter of Vernon Huntley Jacobs and Ruby Nancy Willett Jacobs. Her formative years were lived in Plains, KS. Janice’s characteristic personality emerged early: shy, curious, deeply intelligent, independent, with an appetite for learning and experiencing everything. By 8th grade she had proudly applied for a Social Security number and began a series of after- school and summer employment opportunities at the local pharmacy, grain elevator and bank to earn money for college. Her dream was to attend medical school which did not materialize until her death, October 18, 2022, (one week short of her 96th birthday) when her body was donated to the KU Medical School Willed Body Research Program. Her family cheered! Mom earned an Associate Degree from Colorado Women’s College in Denver, CO., then studied pre-med at KU before she accepted the marriage proposal of her childhood friend, Wm. H. Klein Jr. It was a beautiful wedding in the Fall of 1947. The wheat crop had been bountiful and off they drove in Dad’s new Ford convertible for a six-week honeymoon in CA. Within 3 years, they were homesteading on a farm 20 miles southeast of Tribune in what Mom described as a “chicken shed with an outhouse.” She felt like a pioneer living WITHOUT electricity, running water, an indoor toilet, or a telephone; and WITH a toddler, Kandee Kae, and a baby, William Huntley. Later Rock Alan followed by Kellee Jo completed their family. It was no secret that Janice disliked living on a farm, “twenty miles from nowhere”. It was not the life she had earlier envisioned. However, Mom’s motto was “Bloom Where You Are Planted” and she did. In those early years, s
