Obituary of Janet M. Roswell
Janet Roswell began her full cycle of life on January 19, 1951 concluding on her birthday 74 years later.
She always will be remembered by her spirited joie de vivre attitude delivered with a lilting voice that often brought a smile and sense of comfort to all she touched.
As a devoted wife of 43 years, a tireless advocate for her two children, Raina and Skyler, along with a magical connection to her 3-year-old granddaughter Alexandra, Janet was a wondrous, energetic and happy soul completely comfortable in her own skin. But there were many sides to Janet.
With a Masters Degree in Library Sciences from Syracuse University, Janet came back home to Bedford where she quickly was hired as a children's librarian at the Rippopwam- Cisqua private school where her reading sessions became legend due to her lilting, sing song voice that filled the classroom with excitement and passion.
She loved children's books and was always on the lookout at yard sales, book sales, tag sales, you name it--she rarely passed without stopping without finding hidden gems. And since she already was there, she also had a special sense for vintage clothes and shoes and bags, and antiques, exotic cowhides, bear rugs, and on and on.
Her next job was also in Bedford, as the children's librarian at the Bedford Hills Library where once again built a legion of parents, toddlers, pre-adolescent kids attendees making her afternoon sessions virtually standing room only encounters. The collections of books, clothes and exotica continued so just imagine the decades of dedication that allowed Janet to donate over 14,000 books to the Queens Public Library system and another 2,500 to Lewisboro Library Book Sale this September after a long battle with Alzheimers. We have a few thousand left, no kidding.
During this time, a good friend of hers from Syracuse introduced her to me in 1978 while playing ping-pong. We started talking about music, shared some interests, and the next thing I knew we were going to concerts by the Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Blondie, The Clash---all bands I had never heard of, but Janet was sure this was the direction music was going. I listened and loved and I begin writing a music column for the Daily News which thanks to Janet grew an audience of readers.
As a public librarian, Janet had some free time during the day and began circling the shows she gleamed from reading the Village Voice and Soho Weekly News. Janet made the schedule and I got us in for free due to my newspaper connections. The Mudd Club, Webster Hall, the Academy of Music and Studio 54 were frequent stops along the way. Unlike me, Janet fit right in and was in her glory.
In between Janet was a member of the Lewisboro Recreation Board.Somehow Janet managed to juggle or balance both worlds. This went on for years, or until we had Raina in 1984, followed by Skyler in 1987 when Janet dedicated herself with an innovative, playful approach that showed its fruits when Raina began reading at 18 months, Skyler a gifted musician in fourth grade, and a reputation for the stylish clothes, cool books and interesting field trips up and down the Eastern seaboard. It was Janet who saw the music potential in Skyler and advocated on her behalf to get into the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. It was Clint who made the weekly drives into Manhattan. It was Janet who gave Raina the impetus to play piano, and later accepted to 14 of the 15 Eastern colleges she applied for.
And it was Janet who trumpeted the cruise line experience which took us to Hawaii three times, the Caribbean three times, Italy twice,and France. She also encouraged the idea of international travel where we took business trips for IBM that were a ton of fun to Tokyo, Beijing, CapeTown, among others, and including San Diego, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Az..
We had a good life and many good times togther over our 43 years of marriage. Janet is survived by her husband, Clint, daughters Raina, her granddaughter Alecanda, Skyler and her husband, Captain Derek Hessing of South Carolina,, sisters Marcia of Somers and Nancy of Carmel.
She will be missed but never forgotten
