Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Janis Daschofsky Pekarski, age 87, of Gatesville, passed away Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at her home.
Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, May 25, at Scott’s Funeral Home with Jonathan Ford and Willis Moore officiating. The family will receive visitors one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
Janis Louise Dyson Daschofsky Pekarski was born Oct. 19, 1936, to the late Edwin B Dyson and Erna L. Koch Dyson in the Plainview community. She attended Plainview school in her early years and then started Gatesville school during her junior high years. As a high school sophomore, her family moved to the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado. While in high school, she was the majorette, band drum major, and was voted both homecoming queen and prom queen.
Janis accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior during Vacation Bible School at the age of 12.
During her time in Colorado, she went to work one summer as a potato harvester and fell in love with a young farmer, Alan Daschofsky. In the summer of 1955, her family moved back to Texas, and her heart broke to leave the potato farmer behind. In the fall of 1955, she enrolled in Hillcrest Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. In December 1955, Alan Daschofsky made that long drive from Colorado to Waco, and Janis crawled out the window of her dorm. They eloped and got married in the first town across the Texas-New Mexico border at the First Baptist Church in Clovis, New Mexico. They moved back to Texas in 1956 when they were expecting their first child. Over the next six years, God blessed them with three children: Loretta, Kathy, and Fred.
Janis devoted her life to her greatest passion — nursing and nursing education. Her love of education was infinite - first as a student and then as an educator. In 1958, she earned her LVN license through the Coryell Memorial Hospital School of Vocational Nursing. Then, over the next 30 years, she continued her education with an associate degree in science and an associate of general education from Central Texas College. She continued her education with a Bachelor of Science in health professions and a Master of Science in health professions from Southwest Texas State University.
Janis served in many capacities, including charge nurse, director of nursing at Coryell Memorial Hospital, director of nursing at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Coryell Memorial Hospital instructor for the LVN program, instructor for medication aide, CNA instructor in Bell County, and investigator-nurse-supervisor for the State of Texas working in quality control for Region I. She also served as a hospice volunteer for over 18 years. In 2000, the Gatesville Exchange Club awarded her the honor of “Health Professional of the Year.”
Alan passed away in 2005, which left an empty hole in her life. In 2011, that empty hole was filled with the second love of her life when “Papa Ron” walked in the door at Prima Pasta for their first date. She married Ron Pekarski in March of 2013, and they enjoyed a life of RV traveling and family until his death in August 2019. Janis loved fiercely, and the joys of her life were her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; former husbands, Alan F. Daschofsky and Ronald Pekarski; and sister, Carolyn Dyson Heikes.
Janis is survived by her children, Loretta and husband, Danny Elledge, Kathy and husband, Ronny Perryman, Fred and wife, Lisa Daschofsky; Papa Ron’s children, Linda and husband John Loper, of Hugo, Oklahoma, Jill and husband, Ted Elder, of Newnan, Georgia, Celeste Carroll, of Forney, brother, John Thomas (Tommy) and wife, Jackie Dyson, of Grand Junction, Colorado; grandchildren, Abbey Daschofsky, Ainsley Daschofsky, Zack Daschofsky, Rebekah Campbell, Sherry Barrington, Liz Harris, Jessica Fasani, Jonathan Elledge, Gary Fenner and Alex Fenner; and 15 great-grandchildren.
The family would like to thank Whitney, Rachel, Chelsea, Willis, Erica and Jennifer with Amedisys Hospice for all their love and support over the last several months.
