Janet G. Berry, 88, wife of Nicholas O. Berry, died Jan. 13 in Annapolis, Md.
A memorial service will be held Feb. 8 at 1 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church of Annapolis, 171 Duke of Gloucester St., Annapolis, MD 21401.
Janet loved the theater, performing in her first role at age five in “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come,” directed by her father at their church’s amateur theater. Her last role came some 70 years later, in an unlikely comedy that had her playing for laughs in a blond wig and slinky red dress. She was a lifelong teacher. She taught high-school English fresh out of college, turning later to more appreciative children in elementary and pre-school, and late in life volunteered at the Eastport Elementary School to help children learning to read. She was an accomplished pianist, and kept her Chopin and Debussy sheet music in the piano bench even after her aging fingers could no longer find the notes. In earlier years, she gave piano lessons to children after school. Janet was born July 28, 1935, in Paterson, N. J., to Neal and Kay Glerum, both immigrants from the Netherlands. She grew up in Caldwell, N. J., finishing high school first in her class. She went on to Bethany College in West Virginia, where she majored in English, was a cheerleader and was voted the most outstanding girl in her class. It was at Bethany where she met Nick Berry, and they were married in 1958. They lived in Isle of Palms, S. C., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Lynchburg, Va., before settling in Mount Vernon, in 1970, when Nick joined the faculty of Cornell College. While living in Mount Vernon, Janet performed in plays at Cornell, the Cedar Rapids Community Theater and the Old Creamery Theatre, a professional company. After leaving Iowa in 1982, Janet performed in theaters near their homes in Collegeville, Pa., and Washington before she and Nick moved to Annapolis in 2005, living in Eastport before moving to the Ginger Cove retirement community in 2021. Janet was in 56 plays. Her starring dramatic roles ranged from Emily in “Our Town” when she was a young mother to the powerful Eleanor of Aquitaine in “The Lion of Winter” and finally, in 2006, to Willy Loman’s wife in “Death of a Salesman” at The Colonial Players in Annapolis. Her final role, in 2009 at age 74, was in “Over My Dead Body,” a comedy that in addition to the blond wig also involved a man in a gorilla suit. Janet enjoyed spending time at Ganoga Lake, the family retreat in the mountains of central Pennsylvania, where her children and their families gathered in the summer. She was devoted to her family and deeply loved.
She is survived by her husband; daughters Lynn Berry (Pavel Kustov) of Washington, D.C., and Stephanie Berry (Joest Kramer) of La Porte City; grandson Nick Luke (Sara Luke) and great-grandchildren Julien and Lennox of Eau Claire, Wis.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother, James Glerum.
An online guest book is available at www.johnmtaylorfuneralhome.com