Janet L. Wagner

Jan was the second child and first daughter of four children born to Evelyn Ruth Mackey and Alfred C. Mackey. Jan was the only one born in the hospital in New London, CT, the rest born in a cottage on Black Point in Niantic CT. They literally lived a stone's throw from the Long Island Sound, and as with all families so located, their lives became synced with the ebbs and flows of the tides, the seasons and the coastal weather. "Buster" (as the patriarch was known by one and all) Mackey worked at the Electric Boat Company building submarines, but at heart, he was a waterman, and lobsters, scallops and crabs were regular staples of the family diet. He opened Mackey's Bait and Tackle in downtown Niantic and it became the magnet for fisherman from around the area. Jan's brother Al still operates the store today. Though Jan never became a blue water sailor, salt water coursed through her system and she never was far from the unique sights and smells of the New England coast during her early years. Only those who have heard the crashing waves, the mournful fog horns and tingled in the foggy salt mists can appreciate how that permeates your very being. Jan was blessed with a similarly oriented group of neighborhood friends who shared in the fishing, boating and crabbiing and she maintained contact with them until the end. No one made more of an effort to maintain contact with friends made along life's path than Jan did.

When Jan was a young teenager at the Williams Memorial Institute (WMI) girl's high school in New London, she met a young Coast Guard Academy Cadet by the name of Art Wagner and they eventually became engaged in 1953. An argument broke that arrangement and the relationship splintered, seemingly never to be resurrected. She subsequently married Richard Reincke, a handsome young Niantic man, and eventually gave birth to three girls; Diantha, Ericka, and Alyssa. As sometimes is the case, the relationship foundered, and Jan and the girl's struck off for Florida. It was a bold move, but Jan tackled the single Mom role with a vengance, working up to three jobs at a time, volunteering in the Pinellas Republican Party, and as an 18-year head usher at the Ruth Eckerd Hall for the Perfoming Arts. On top of all that, she managed to pay off the 30 year mortgage on her house in 23 years! All while shepherding the three girls successfully through those terrible teens and on into successful adult lives.

Diantha, her eldest, worked for a time in the Pinellas Tax Office at the auto tag desk, when a man named Jim Michaels came in, saw her and said I am going to marry her. He did, and Jan was blessed with three wonderful grandchldren, Marissa, Jessica, and Matt. Ericka Reincke worked in Crystal River, then at Burdine's in Countryside, and has had a wonderful long-time relationship with Dr. Robert Churney, a periodontist in Clearwater. They have been a caring and giving couple, supporting many charitable programs in the area. Youngest Alyssa has become the family gourmet chef, and had for a time, the wonderful sports restaurant "Stillwater" in Lutz FL, until the landlord raised the rent. She has become reunited with a high scholl sweetheart, and the future looks rosy. Diantha's Marissa has an artistic knack, and is devoting that talent to candles, bracelets and similar "girl" products and judging from the quality, should make a break through. Jessica gave us all a scare when it was determined that she had a pediatric tumor on the cerebellum - it was not sea sickness! A fourteen hour operation has her back on her feet, Praise the Lord! She and her husband Tim are on the way to spend the summer in Ireland and France.  As Jan always joked, Jessica is hoping to one day get as tall as her gram! Young Matt is an athelete with great talent, but also a potential male model with inherent good looks. A California venture will tell if that is in the cards.

Jan was the master of relationships and had an innate ability to size up people, the situations they were in, and if asked, provide inerrent advice, a trait she inherited from her father. She thrived on the interpersonal exchanges as a dental assistant, waitress, head usher, volunteer for the needy, Sunday School teacher, political campaign manager, and office administrator.

Retirement for Jan was not one that you would picture - a relaxation of effort and bathing in the accolades of a job well done. No, it was full throttle on to the things she did not have time to do while working for Pinellas County Tax Collector's Office. Volunteer work expanded, care for her aging Mom, and travelling to visit family and friends were renewed objects of her attention.

Retirement did provide her with the time to expand her horizons, and in a wonderful alignment of the stars, or - - - she renewed her acquaintance with Art Wagner, after no contact in 46 years. He had lost his wife to cancer, and the old flames were rekindled and eventually culminated in a wedding in 2001.

Jan had always been a staunch believer and a communicant at the Niantic Episcopal Church, All Saints Episcopal in Tarpon Springs, and after marriage to Art, a communicant at Christ Church Anglican in Savannah, GA. Her life, her everyday comings and goings were with Christ's admonishions - doing unto others as you would have done to you. Rebuffed at many corners, shaken at times, she steadfastedly held to the basic tenets.

It would be hard to depict Jan's proudest moment, as she poured her heart and soul into everything she undertook, but there was always a special hint of moisture in her eyes as she watched her children and grandchildren surmount, surpass or achieve a hard sought goal.