Janet K. Vanzanten

Janet Van Zanten’s Obituary

January 2, 1925 - January 2, 2023

Janet (Kuiper) Van Zanten, 98, of Artesia, CA formerly of Garden Grove, CA, died Monday, January 2, 2023. She was a resident of Artesia Christian Home since June of 2021. Janet passed on her 98th birthday.   Burial will be at the Riverside National Cemetery on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 9:30 am.

Janet was born January 2, 1925 to parents Einer and Emma (Jongstra) Kuiper in Racine, Wisconsin, where she was raised on a dairy farm.  Farm life was not to her liking, so she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she enjoyed working as a Secretary for Midwest Refineries.  After five years, the company moved to a smaller town.  Rather than move, Jan took the severance pay.  Jan took the opportunity to see the country, and California in particular.  

She and two friends left the Midwest on a snowy morning and visited many places of interest, from a mine in Oklahoma to a mission church in Albuquerque, to Rehoboth and Zuni with its red clay roads, to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. They arrived in Bellflower in 1956 and attended the Bethany church where the active Young Adult group gave them such a warm welcome they decided to stay and work a while.  It was here she met Melvin, her future husband.   

Jan worked for Autoetics as a secretary, and took evening classes at Long Beach City College.  In 1956, she attended the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Anaheim church (now Fellowship Hall), and when the church became a reality she canvassed the neighborhood for prospective members, never thinking she would one day be a member herself.  

Mel and Jan were married in Wisconsin in 1960, settled in Garden Grove, and have attended the Anaheim church ever since.  After receiving her B.A. degree and teaching credential from California State, Long Beach, Jan taught Kindergarten for the Huntington Beach City School District.  

Grateful for having shared her life are her brother, Fred (Fritz) Kuiper, many nieces and nephews and their families, her Anaheim Christian Reformed church family, and many other friends.  She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Mel, sister, Alice (Donald) Verduin, and sisters-in-law, Betty Kuiper, Jeanette Van Zanten, Alice (Walt) Burgers, Nellie (John) Burgers and brothers-in-law, Dewey (Gladys), J.W. (Barb), and Pierre Van Zanten.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Janet K. Vanzanten, please visit our floral store.