Obituary: Janet Rasmussen

Former 47-year Falls Church resident Janet Rasmussen died January 1, 2007 from age related causes. She was 86.

Janet Rasmussen was born in Chicago, Illinois September 29, 1920, the second of four children born to Aksel and Emily Keith Rasmussen. When the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp. (WAAC) was formed in 1943, she was one of the first to join. Sent to Whitehorse in the Yukon, she served as a long range radio operator. She left the service briefly to train as an Air Traffic Controller but when she realized that women were not being hired for that position, she rejoined the Army with an officer’s commission.

After working as a finance officer in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria, Berlin, Germany and Governor’s Island in New York, she was honorably discharged as a Captain in 1956.Janet then joined the U.S. Secret Service. She specialized in computer security, writing programs, designing software and traveling world wide as part of her duties. Her base of operations was the Navy Annex and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Upon retirement in 1975, her title was Supervisory Computer Specialist.

She was passionate about her philanthropy. Several children in the Philippines were “adopted” by her through the Pearl Buck organization. She was an active volunteer for Red Cross and heavily promoted Berea College in Berea, Ky. where a scholarship has been established in her name. She then continued traveling all over the U.S. and Canada in her motor home and make an Elder Hostel trip to Australia.

She was a docent at Green Spring Farm Park, the historic house and art gallery. She donated generously to the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Women in Military Service for America Memorial. She was an avid patron of the arts and local artists. She was active in our Neighborhood Watch Association.

In the fall of 2003, she moved from her home in Falls Church to Willamette Oaks in Eugene, Or.

She passed away in her apartment at Sheldon Park in Eugene. She was preceded in death by her sister, Virginia Lorraine May. Survivors include a sister Marjorie Keith Lloyd of Junction City, Oregon; a brother Frederick Keith Rasmussen of Oak Forrest, Illinois and six nieces and nephews.