Janice Althea Hanson, 87, of Oxford, Maine, and Tampa, Florida, died on Saturday, April 7, 2018, in Collierville, Tennessee. She was born August 9, 1930, in Buckfield to Ralph and Lillian (Holmes) Smith, the third of seven children. Janice was raised on a small dairy farm in North Buckfield. Janice attended Buckfield High School and Farmington State Teacher's College. She married William Nelson Hanson, Jr (Bill), of Buckfield. His Air Force career took them to Missouri, Georgia, Spain, and then Florida. She and her children stayed in Florida for several of Bill's unaccompanied foreign tours of duty. They bought their last home in 1972 in Tampa near MacDill AFB where Janice lived until 2015, when she moved to Tennessee to live with her daughter. Janice worked as a claims clerk for the Social Security Administration and as a clerk in the Hillsborough County Tax Office. After Bill retired from the Air Force, they started spending their summers on Thompson Lake in Oxford. Like her mother, Janice enjoyed music and played the piano. She enjoyed dancing. As a teenager, she and her brother Ronald would liven up the weekend events as a circle formed to admire their skill. Janice always enjoyed making things with her hands, from quilts to cable-knit sweaters to many items of clothing, including the wedding dress of her daughter. Her many descendants are enjoying her prize-winning quilts and her handmade socks. She earned dozens of ribbons including best-of-show at both the Florida State Fair and at events in Maine. She was a long-time member of the Pine Needles Quilters in South Paris. Over the past year, Janice was able to see all of her descendants - who now live all over the United States - as they passed through Collierville, Tennessee.
Her oldest granddaughter wrote this about Grammy… She is woolen mittens, knitting needles, quilts, summers in Maine, winters in Florida, a little dish of ice cream after dinner, chocolate donuts, Keds sneakers, slipping you a wad of cash, tv watching, hummingbirds, potted flowers, homemade sweaters, smiles, loons, lots of worries, and always a hug and kiss. She did everything she could to shower me and her family with love. I'll miss you Grammy! Janice was predeceased by her husband Bill Hanson after 55 years of marriage. She was also predeceased by two of her brothers, Ronald and Ivan. She is survived by her sister Marie and her brothers Karl (wife Faye), Bruce, and Lee. Bill and Janice have one son, Denis Hanson and his wife Nora Cameron of Cambridge, Massachusetts; one daughter, Cathleen Snow and her husband Bruce Snow of Collierville, Tennessee; six grandchildren; and fourteen great-grandchildren. Other beloved survivors include Barbara Bennett of Buckfield, Judy Henshaw of Ellenton, Florida, Bruce Hanson (wife Lila) of South Paris, Carlene and Bart Shipley of Mechanic Falls, and numerous Smith relatives. A graveside service is planned for July 14, 2018 at the Buckfield Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the charity of your choice, made in honor of Janice. Family Funeral Care, Memphis, TN (Obituary published by Family Funeral Care)