Jeanet (Jan) McRoberts

4/26/1915 — 2/12/2014

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Jeanet (Jan) McRoberts passed away early Wednesday morning, Feb. 12, 2014, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Lewiston, from complications of a fall. She was just shy of her 99th birthday.

Jan was born Jeanet Winifred Harris on April 26, 1915, in Winchester, to Carl and Georgia Harris. She was the youngest of four daughters, Freda, Esther and Maria. She moved with her family to Kamiah in 1917, and they all later boarded the train for an exciting move to Lewiston in 1927, where her father managed the log yard for the Potlatch Lumber Company. Jan remembered visiting her dad at work where he clambered all over the logs in the pond, never once getting dunked. Jeanet went to grade school in Kamiah, Lewiston (at the Lewiston Teacher's College now called Lewis-Clark State College), Lostine, Enterprise and Paradise, Ore. It was in Paradise that she had to walk two miles in the snow to the schoolhouse (ha!). A cliche, but true. The one-room schoolhouse served 10 students in grades one through eight. She remembered riding a horse to school once, and it bucking her off in front of all her classmates, bruising both her backside and her pride. Early memories include kerosene lamps, drawing water from a well and walking those miles to school. Her favorite school year was grade five at the Lewiston Teacher's College, as they got a new teacher every six weeks. Jeanet graduated from Lewiston High School in 1934.

Jeanet worked at Woolworth's Five and Dime and Montgomery Ward for several years. She spent most of her working career at Bell Telephone Company, where she and another young woman were the first operators in Lewiston. At the beginning of World War II, Howard Hughes received a government contract to build airplanes. Jan moved to Culver City, Calif., to stay with her sister Maria and worked at Hughes Aircraft Company. There she saw the Spruce Goose being built and actually met Mr. Hughes. In late 1944, Jan got tired of standing in long lines and was homesick. She moved back to Lewiston and resumed work at the telephone office.

In 1953, Jeanet married Donald D. McRoberts, M.D., in Coeur d'Alene and worked as a receptionist in his office for two years. She then retired to become a full-time homemaker and help raise their two daughters, Pam and Mona. Jeanet and Don were married for 47 years when he passed away in 2002.

For many years she actively assisted Don with Shriner and Masonic functions, and was vice-president and president of the North Idaho Women's Medical Auxiliary. She taught fourth-grade catechism at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, was a member of the St. Stanislaus Ladies League, was a Bluebird and Campfire leader and a member of ladies golf and bridge clubs. She enjoyed collecting first edition plates, and helped Don convert the ravine by their home on the grapevine in Lewiston into a bird and animal sanctuary. Favorite trips were to Hawaii and Europe.

She is survived by daughters Pamela McRoberts of Boca Raton, Fla., and Mona McRoberts of Lewiston; grandson Matthew Plemmons of Seattle; granddaughter Sarah Lorentz and husband Kevin; and great-grandchildren Jacie Smith, Taran Smith, Alec Smith and Mara Lorentz, all of Lewiston. She was preceded in death by her parents and all of her sisters.

Jeanet specifically requested no funeral, as all of her friends have passed before her. However, a small celebration of life will be held at a later date, and will be noted in the Tribune. Memorials may be made to the Shriner's Hospital for Children.

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