Janice Lucille McMillan

Janice was born at Tacoma General Hospital on 02 June, 1930, to Ella and Vernon Grosser. She was a graduate of Stadium High School in Tacoma and the University of Puget Sound. She married her college sweetheart, Hugh McMillan, in June of 1952 and followed him around the world in his career as a U.S. diplomat, living for extended periods in such exotic locales as Japan, India, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. After Hugh retired from federal service in 1979, the couple settled in the small town of Home, Washington, on the Key Peninsula, where they lived together for the next 42 years.

Internationally acclaimed as "the hostess with the most'est," Janice was an engaging conversationalist who made guests feel welcome and put everyone at ease. She was an accomplished gourmet chef, Japanese 'ikebana' flower arranger, seamstress, and interior decorator. She enjoyed gardening and was a voracious reader. Everyone who visited the McMillan household delighted in the bottomless cookie jar, and the lucky few special friends who got to taste one of her marionberry pies knew they had experienced a true hint of the divine.

Devoted to community service, Janice was a USIS volunteer and fundraiser for English-language libraries in Japan, India, Egypt, and Greece. She later served as a senior member of the Key Peninsula Health Board, the Key Peninsula Orthopedics Guild, and volunteered with the Angel Guild in Key Center, Washington. However, she always proudly maintained that her most significant accomplishments were as the devoted mother to her two sons, Lance and Marshall, and as a homemaker. When her husband Hugh was recognized as Citizen of the Year by the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce, he honestly remarked that "…while some of you have jokingly said that I walk on water, it's only because my beloved wife, Janice, has always been there below the surface, holding me up so that it would look that way."

Janice will be deeply missed by her family and many close friends