Jane Kamletz

Our mother, Jane (Miller) Kamletz, the lady who ‘lived to love’, peacefully passed away on October 15th, 2024. Please join us in celebrating her life at Hidden River Acres Event Center in Jamestown on Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.

Mom grew up on a small farm near Millarton along with one brother and three sisters.  She attended Millarton school, and later graduated from Jud in 1960.  She wanted to marry dad right away, but her father demanded she go to college and that she was to be a teacher.  After her first year of college, Mom and Dad married on August 11, 1961.  Dad remained working in Jamestown while Mom continued her education in Valley City.  In 1962, she started teaching grades 1-4 in Eldridge. Two years later she transferred to Jamestown and taught first graders for the next 40 years!  Most of those years were at Washington Elementary.

In 1965, Richard and Jane were blessed with a new baby boy!  In 1969, ice jams on the Pipestem caused terrible flooding in Jamestown.  Oh, and they had a baby girl.

Mom was always on the go.  In addition to teaching, she was a cook, bottle washer, and bookkeeper for our small clan.  She didn’t get much time for hobbies (remember that daughter!), but when she did get some time for herself, she loved reading, crocheting, baking, and quilting.  She also loved fishing, which was a special time for us as we were able to get our folks away from work and alone with just us. No one else. No phones, no jobs to check, or paperwork to do.  Plus, Mom fried the best fish!

Mom was thankful for her father who pushed her into teaching.  Grandpa probably got the idea from the many times he saw her sitting on a rock in the pasture, reading to the cows.  He certainly was right!  Mom absolutely loved teaching, and her heart was happiest in the classroom seeing the joy of learning on her students’ faces.

The accomplishment she was most pleased with, was when she presented to the Education Committee of the ND Legislature.  We still remember how nervous she was as she practiced her presentation over and over at the kitchen table.  To help illustrate how hard it was for kids learning to read, she used a made-up language and challenged the legislators to try to read it.  She definitely made her point, as they voted to enact public Kindergarten throughout ND.

To honor her father, she later set her sights on a master’s degree.  Despite having to balance her full-time teaching career, bookkeeping, and the demands of being a mother (remember that son!), she earned her master’s degree in 1980.  Mom definitely wasn’t a quitter.

She amassed a number of awards, recognitions, and tributes over her lifetime—too many to list here.  Her greatest honor was granted to her in 1982 when she was named “North Dakota State Teacher of the Year”.

Although the accolades were appreciated, that wasn’t what drove her.  Mom seemed to get as much energy out, as she put into her working with kids and their families.  She saw the opportunity to help others as a blessing.  Mom also invested in paying it forward by training many student teachers, presenting lessons to college students, and offering techniques and teaching materials at ND State Teachers’ Conventions.

Mom loved people!  She had a soft spot for the elderly and always made a point of reaching out to remind them they were important, loved, and appreciated.  It was a rare day when she didn’t go out of her way to make someone else’s day brighter with a call, a visit, a helping hand, a few dollars slipped into their pocket, or just a smile.  That was her life—to love others.

We are thankful that Mom has been reunited with Dad, her husband of 62 years, Richard Kamletz. She has also been reunited with her parents, Chris and Helen Miller, and her siblings, Doris Odenbach, Charles Miller and Dorothy Marier.

Thank you all for the love you shared with Jane,

Marsha & Dan (Breckenridge, MN)

Kurt (Alaska)

Auntie Marilyn Sailer (Mandan, ND)