August 15, 1931 – November 26, 2020

Janice May McCallum of New Castle, CO passed away peacefully in her sleep of natural causes on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2020, during her 90th year.

Janice was born on August 15, 1931 to Dell and Elva Wright of Elgin IL. The oldest of five children, she grew up in Elgin and graduated from Elgin High School in the Class of 1949.

On March 21, 1953, she married David McCallum, also of Elgin. She loved to tell the story of how they lived in a chicken coop that had been turned into a duplex for one of their first homes with 3 young sons. They had bought the big empty lot next door and Dave brought his carpenter skills to bear on building a house. After Dave started a career in pharmaceutical sales, they made their home in a number of cities over the years, including Detroit, MI, Syracuse, NY, Annandale, VA and Louisville, KY. After Dave retired, he and Jan moved first to New Orleans, LA and then settled in Glenwood Springs, CO for retirement and to be near a quartet of grandchildren. Everywhere they lived Jan and Dave made lifelong friends.

Jan and Dave lived in Louisville for over 20 years and came to love college basketball and the thoroughbreds at Churchill Downs, and every year since she celebrated the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May. When the boys went off to college she went to work as medical assistant for her best friends and neighbors Dr. Victor Matibag and his wife Aggie who was a nurse. After getting settled in Glenwood Springs, she helped to manage Marc’s Toys and Pets, for Marc and Joan Adler, in the West Glenwood Mall where she made friends easily, old and young alike, among the customers and staff. Always young in spirit, she later came out of retirement to be the House Director for the Alpha Phi Alpha sorority at the University of Colorado Boulder, which she always said had to be the best job in the world because she loved to spend time with young people. She enjoyed fishing, camping, and traveling, from Key West to Alaska.

Jan always shared her home with a variety of beloved pets, not just cats and dogs but, when the boys were younger also skunks, raccoons, squirrels, and various wounded animals from the nearby woods.

Jan loved her family and many friends from all over the country. She is survived by sisters Mary Jane Marques of Poughkeepsie, NY, Judy Seegert of Wisconsin Rapids, WI, and her brother Bill Wright of Irvine, CA; and her sons David McCallum of Washington, DC, Mike McCallum of Glenwood Springs, CO, and Terry McCallum of Washington, DC. She is also survived by seven grandchildren and their families: Carly Watkins (Ry), Whitefish, MT; Courtney Shultz (Jake), Whitefish, MT; Hunter McCallum (Breanna), Glenwood Springs; Madison McCallum, Dallas, TX; Ashley Hill, Louisville, KY; Tyler McCallum, Hopkinsville, KY; and David McCallum, Washington, DC; as well as six great-grandchildren (Noelani, Rowdy, Bo, Mac, Michael and Charlee) and many nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends. She was preceded in death by her husband and by her brother Robert Wright.

Jan was an open minded and kind person who treated everyone with love and respect.

A memorial service will be planned at a later date with interment in the Wright Family plot at Fordham Cemetery in Friendship, WI.