Lt Col Jan Kendrick passes away...

[AlphaSigOU]

For those in currently in (or formerly) Florida Wing and SE Region:

Lt Col Janet B. (Jan) Kendrick, CAP passed away today (January 7) after suffering a heart attack.

She was my squadron commander at North Miami Cadet Squadron (08125, later SER-FL-125, now defunct) back when I was a cadet. I was proud to serve under her as her cadet commander.

Funeral arrangements:

Viewing
Friday, January 11, 2008
5 pm - 9 pm
St.  Fort's Funeral Home
16480 NE 19th Ave
N. Miami Beach, FL 33162

Memorial Service
Saturday, January 12, 2008
11 am
North Palm Baptist
7801 NW 178 st.
Palm Springs North, FL  33015

My condolences to her husband, Lt Col Ted Kendrick, CAP and her daughter, Elizabeth Kendrick Rebustillo (Spaatz #1210).

Farewell, Col. Kendrick, and may God be with you.

In our hearts, in our minds,
In our affections - constantly.
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning, we will remember.*

( * Inscription on a plaque left by the families of the lost crew of the M/V Derbyshire, which sank off Japan in 1980. The shipwreck was located in 1994.)

[Bugsmasher]

I am really sorry to hear of Jan's passing.  I got to know her when she was Commander of the North Miami Cadet Squadron, and I was her Group Commander.  She developed a lot of good members in her squadron thru her leadership and inspiration.  She will be missed.

My condolences to Ted and family.

[SDF_Specialist]

My condolences to the family of the good Colonel. May she rest in peace.

[Major Carrales]

I offer my condolences, while I did not know this CAP Officer, we are lessened by the death of a sister officer. 

[BigMojo]

I did not know her as well, but as another member in the area, my condolences to the family. Fair winds and clear skies.

[AlphaSigOU]

Lt Col Kendrick's obituary, from the Miami Herald:

Posted on Fri, Jan. 11, 2008
In Civil Air Patrol, she was `Major Mom'
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER

Janet Pearson Kendrick, ''Major Mom'' to hundreds of South Florida Civil Air Patrol cadets -- a woman who lost four children, an arm and ultimately her mobility, yet retained her determination and independence -- died Monday. She was 68.

''One too many heart attacks,'' said her daughter, Elizabeth Rebustillo, a Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School teacher.

Kendrick rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the CAP -- the U.S. Air Force's auxiliary -- in 30 years of volunteering, and was most recently involved in the communications division.

She was the North Miami unit's squadron commander for 17 years, then the group commander of all South Florida squadrons.

CAP resembles an ROTC/scouting hybrid, teaching military-style discipline and leadership skills and offering aerospace education and inland search-and-rescue services.

She taught preschoolers at her church and volunteered for the Special Olympics and at Camillus House.

Many of the cadets Kendrick nurtured came from shaky family situations. By all accounts, she made the difference in lots of lives.

She could ''work with teenagers and young adults and get them to open up . . . and realize they have a future even if they didn't think so,'' said Lt. Col. Joel Katz, director of communications for the CAP's southeast region.

She would drive cadets to meetings, chip in for their uniforms and ''make sure they were fed,'' Katz said. ``She even worked with them on school projects, and she got involved with their families. . . . That was her heart.''

Janet Pearson was born in Rhode Island and moved to West Palm Beach as a child. She met Ted Kendrick, a Vietnam-era Army veteran, when he took over a business in Northwest Miami for his father, the Cedar Shake Inn and Rusty's Catering.

By then a single mother, ''she was hardest working, most honest employee I had, so I had to marry her to keep her,'' he said.

From 1968 until Janet retired on disability in 2001, the couple worked together in food service, then selling insurance and in CAP.

Kendrick got involved in CAP after one of her sons joined. He lasted a year; she stayed the rest of her life. Rebustillo, her daughter, also joined and rose through the ranks to earn top awards.

The Kendrick house kept an open door to all cadets. The night before drill competitions, ``there would be 20 kids sleeping on the floor.''

Cadets gave her a T-shirt with ''Major Mom'' on the back. She taught sportsmanship and responsibility.

Tragedy visited the Kendricks over and over. A daughter was stillborn in the 1970s. Son Ronald, 25, died in a 1996 motorcycle accident, son Eddie, 42, of a heart attack in 2005. Daughter Eleanor Owens also died of a heart attack at 42, in 2002.

Janet Kendrick, emotionally devastated, was also beset by diabetes, cardiac problems and chronic pain. By 2005, she was in a wheelchair. That June, a medical mishap forced doctors to amputate her right arm.

But she bounced back, her daughter said. She even taught herself to sew with one hand and this Christmas wrapped dozens of gifts.

Said Elizabeth Rebustillo: ``There was nothing in my mom that had defeat in her.''

In addition to her husband and daughter, Kendrick is survived by a son, Robert, of West Palm Beach, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.