Janice Lehr Haas, recently of Archbold OH; research librarian; loving wife of Bernard; loving daughter of Dr. William F. and Olive Lehr; parent, sister, grandparent, great-grandparent, and (recently) great-great grandparent passed away Friday, January 29, 2021.
The shy and bookish daughter of a small-town doctor and his wife (and office manager), Janice grew up in Arlington, Ohio, a small town (population < 1000 in Janice’s time) just south of Findlay. Her house was just across the street from the Methodist Church, where she and her family were active.
As a teen, she and her two sisters and parents performed as a traveling gospel choir, performing at churches throughout the region. I don’t know who delivered babies in Arlington on Sunday nights.
She attended Capital University and Bowling Green State University, graduating with a degree in Home Economics. One summer she brought her college roommate home for the summer. The roommate, a Cleveland girl, so loved Arlington and Janice’s family that she relocated to rural Arlington on graduation. From Cleveland!
Janice met the love of her life, Bernard Haas, on a blind date on the eve of his Army induction. He and Janice developed a romance by military mail throughout his tour of duty, and were married soon after he returned to civilian life.
She and Bernie lived the first year or two of their marriage in a tiny house trailer in BGSU’s married housing quarter, where both children were born, while Bernie finished his Bachelor’s degree. Their marriage and children (Gary, of Havre de Grace MD, and Linda Miller, of Ludington MI) were at the heart of her ensuing life.
Janice followed Bernie to his first job in Morenci, MI, for several years. Subsequent moves took them to Napoleon, OH, for fourteen years, where they raised both children, and which was always more “home” than anywhere else; on to Fremont, OH, where they lived for a quarter century, and Janice found a career and retired from it; and finally to Archbold.
A caring and nurturant mother, Janice was adored by her children. A stay-at-home Mom while the children were small, Janice took part-time employment at the school cafeteria until they were safely graduated. She then found employment as a home-economics teacher, but she hated it and rapidly moved on.
She soon found work as a research librarian at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library in Fremont, where she curated the collection of historic photographs for about 20 years. She loved that job, and the researchers she served loved her too.
Janice was always active in the church: St. Paul Methodist Church in Napoleon, Hayes Memorial United Methodist Church in Fremont, and Archbold United Methodist Church. She and Bernie enjoyed camping, traveled across much of America, and tended flower and vegetable gardens when they were home.
She was interested in genealogy, and left binders of Lehr family history for both of her children. But mostly she loved reading. She belonged to book clubs wherever they lived, and when she relaxed it was always with a good book. Flowers and chocolate completed the mood.
Bernie and Janice moved to a retirement community in Archbold in 1995, and spent many happy years helping at the Commons, attending pot-lucks with their neighbors, playing cards with their friends, and traveling to dote on their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
With progressing age, Janice experienced a series of falls, becoming with each less mobile. In her late 80s Janice moved from her beloved duplex in Fairlawn Village to the nursing home at Fairlawn Haven. Her Bernie spent every day in the recliner in her room, and they dined together daily in the Fairlawn Haven dining room.
When Bernie died in 2016, he didn’t die for Janice. Though invalid, she continued an active life with him in her waking dreams, going to Toledo and to the lake for meetings and social events, mostly involving family.
When I visited her at Fairlawn Haven, her concerns always revolved around where everyone will be sleeping, when will Bernie get here, and when will we be going “home”.
Services will be private. Short Funeral Home in Archbold has been entrusted with the arrangements. www.ShortFuneralHome.com
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