Janice Levitan

Janice Levitan (née Held) died August 24th due to complications of Parkinson’s disease. She was 90. She was pre-deceased by her husband Robert Levitan, to whom she was married for 62 years.

Janice was born February 18, 1933, in Webster Groves, MO, the daughter of Elmer and Elizabeth Held and the youngest of five children. She graduated from Webster Groves High School and attended Colorado College and Washington University before leaving school to marry Robert, who she met as his blind date for his high school prom. They were married October 18, 1953.

After brief stays in Delaware and Tarrytown, NY, Jan and Bob settled in New City, NY, where they raised their four children. In 2008 they relocated to Cedar Crest in Pompton Plains, NJ.

Janice was an artistic soul. She was a professional actress as a child. As an adult, she found creative outlets in cooking, baking, decorating, floral design and sewing. She was an accomplished seamstress, enthusiastically creating costumes for her childrens’ theater groups, and dresses and Halloween costumes for her grandchildren. She also loved to sing, play piano and draw and excelled at all of it.

Janice poured her energy and love into her four children (Jeffrey, Stephen, Susan and David), her nine grandchildren (Jason, Jennifer, Sarah, Caiti, Brandon, Emily, Carolyn, Jessica and Elizabeth) and her six great-grandchildren (Camille, Katie, Corinne, Ryan, Evan and Bennett), all of whom loved her endlessly. Her love was also shared with her son- and daughters-in-law (Carol Boyle, Ann (Kuhn) Levitan, David Strabo and Cheri (Scheff) Levitan) and her grandsons- and granddaughters-in-law (Margo (Kelly) Strabo, Andy Pfau, Matthew Perry, Jennie (Schwartz) Levitan, Tim O'Neill, Erez Krengel and the late Robert Breck Denny Jr.). Janice also had a special place in her heart for Eunice Baka, her companion and aide for the past six years, and to whom the family is eternally grateful.

There will be a graveside service for Janice on Tuesday, August 29, at 2 pm, at Mt. Hope Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, after which she will be interred next to her husband.