Janet B. Hughes

Janet Hughes, 100, passed away Sunday, January 22, 2012 at a local nursing home. She was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania on November 23, 1911 to Roy and Nell Bowser. Janet grew up in Pennsylvania with three sisters and three brothers. She has two siblings remaining, one brother, Thomas, and one sister, Rosanna. During her lifetime she traveled far and wide; she lived in many different places, much due to her husband's engineering career. Some of those places were Michigan, Three Rivers California, Venezuela and Peru. She would state that she lived in too many places to name them all. While in California, Janet partnered with another lady and ran a weaving school for eight years. She graduated from Penn State and was a Dietician for the military. She ran the "Mess Hall" and cooked for the Air Force at a pilot training school in Georgia. Janet joined the Army/Air Force, as did five of her six siblings. She married her husband, Blake Hughes, but did not have any children; although she had nieces and nephews by the dozen. Her husband was also in the Army. Janet was a master hand-weaver and could create anything from baby blankets, ponchos to dresses. She once owned six to seven looms for weaving. While in Peru, she was what some would have called a "grave picker". This was a term once used, but now it would be known as an "Archeologist". While Janet was in Peru she discovered the most magnificent Pre-Columbian Andean artifacts that were later donated to the Fresno Art Museum in California. There are around 650 artifacts in the Hughes Collection at this museum. This collection features both textiles and ceramic artifacts from the southernmost point of Peru. She used to spend her time weaving, exercising and exploring the world. One would be intrigued to know that Janet has never had her hair cut and she always wore her hair in a bun or braids. But the most intriguing part of this story is how she would braid her hair. Her family says that she would bend over, put her head between her legs and braid her hair upside down. Janet said she had a crazy life; but in later years she loved to spend her days reading, playing Bingo, and visiting with her family. Janet's ashes will be inurned in the columbarium at the Texas State Veterans Cemetery at Abilene. Final arrangements were handled by The Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road.