JANICE COLLIN

Janice Eleanor (Dalbey) Collin of San Antonio, Texas passed away on Monday, November 25, 2024, at the Blue Skies of Texas care center.  She was 83 years old.

Janice was born on April 5, 1941, in Mora, Minnesota as the 1st born child of Clifford and Eleanor (Brown) Dalbey.  Growing up on a small dairy farm, she helped milk cows by hand and became a “dairy queen” for the Farm Bureau (Dairy Queen was also a favorite dating stop). She attended country school in Hillman township and graduated from Mora High School in 1958.  While playing the Baritone in school band, Janice met a coy trumpet player – Daniel Collin.  They went on their first date on November 23, 1956.  Janice worked the summer after high school at the Kanabec Hospital before attending the Fairview School of Nursing, graduating in 1961.

On July 1, 1961, Janice was united in marriage to Daniel Collin in a service at the Immanuel Lutheran church in Brunswick.  They sang a duet at the altar (Take My Life & Let It Be Consecrated).  Three ministers officiated included her uncle Rev Clyde Dalbey and Daniel’s father Rev Edward Collin.

Janice worked as a nurse at Fairview Hospital while Daniel finished medical school.  During the Vietnam war, Daniel joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps under the Senior Medical Student Volunteer program.  Daniel’s assignment after graduation was to Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) on Oahu, Hawaii, for his Internship and Internal Medicine Residency.

Kristina and Michael were born there in 1966 and 1968, and Janice took some courses at the University of Hawaii.  Kari was also born at TAMC on another tour of Hawaiian duty in 1976.  Military assignments followed to San Francisco, CA; Washington D.C.; Ft. Campbell, KY; Tacoma, WA; Denver, CO; and Honolulu, HI.

They settled in Honolulu in 2000 after her husband’s 20 years of interrupted active military duty and 15 years as Radiologist with Hawaii Permanente Medical Group.  Five months of each year were spent at the gated resort community of Lake Barrington Shores, IL until 2007 when looming health issues and planning for later life led to settlement at Blue Skies of Texas – a continuing care retirement community in San Antonio, TX.  They continued for several years to spend summers in Illinois.

Janice was an avid learner and loved to read the Bible and about biblical history and archaeology.  She always selected churches with the best Sunday Schools for the children, be it Lutheran, Covenant, Methodist or Presbyterian. 

As wife of a busy doctor, she single-handedly ran the home.  The entire family benefitted from her advice on college courses and career planning.  Such advice prompted her husband to reverse course after a year as a civilian Gastroenterologist in Rockford, IL to return to active duty, training in Radiology at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center near her family in Denver.

Before the children arrived, she often played piano (by ear) and sang wedding solos and in church choirs.  With deteriorating eyesight in her final years, her reading stopped but she enjoyed being read to by Daniel (with mutual enjoyment) – especially Agatha Christie mysteries.  She was always interested in news and current events.

Janice will be remembered for being a loving wife, mother and grandmother and grateful recipient of care in her difficult final years.  Her grace, gratitude and love will be long remembered.  She will be deeply missed.

Janice was preceded in death by her parents, sister Carolyn Parker with husband Douglas and sister-in-law and brother-in-law Merida and Paul Erickson.

She is survived by her husband Daniel, children Kristina (Keith) Etter, Michael (Jenny) Collin and Kari (Voytek) Jarnot and grandchildren Madeline Etter, Daniel (DJ) Collin and Matilda Collin; Sister Sylvia Gunberg; Brother Wendell (Connie) Dalbey; brothers and sisters-in-law David (Ruth) Collin and Natalie (Jack) King; many nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

A Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 am on Friday, December 13, 2024 the Hamilton Funeral Homes – Akkerman Chapel in Mora. 

Visitation will be held 1 hour prior to the service.

Interment will be in the Oakwood Cemetery in Mora. 

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