A pioneer whose family moved from Arkansas to Rockford when she was a little girl as part of The Great Migration died Sunday after a long battle with cancer.
Janice Brown, 76, made history by becoming the first black person hired by the Rockford Fire Department, according to an August 1973 Rockford newspaper article.
She became a beloved and integral part of the Fire Department, serving for 33 years as a senior clerk in the Fire Prevention Division. After her death, her niece, Ald. Gabrielle Torina, D-5, found among her belongings a key to the city that had been given to her aunt upon her retirement.
Torina didn’t even know her aunt had one.
“Aunt Jan never talked about this, and that’s because it wasn’t important to her,” Torina said. “Her legacy is literally love and kindness and laughter and generosity. That’s what was important to her. And that’s what everyone says about her. For me, it put things into perspective. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”
Visitation is scheduled from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 23, at Fitzgerald Funeral Home and Crematory, Mulford Chapel, 1860 S. Mulford Road. A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 24, also at Fitzgerald Funeral Home.
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Brown was born on May 28, 1948, in Prescott, Arkansas, the daughter of her father, the late Reverend Samuel Brown, and her mother, Irene Brown. She and her sister, Ruth Torina, moved to Rockford, then a manufacturing giant, when she was very young, seeking better opportunities up north.
Her father found work in a Gunite factory in Rockford and eventually became the first black union president in Rockford.
Torina said she was close to her aunt her entire life. Brown was a longtime member of the Rockford Travelers Bowling League and a member of the AARC Booker Washington Center Senior Boomers
“This is honestly a devastating loss for our family, but also for our community,” Torina said. “She just made everything fun. You talk about a fun aunt, Aunt Jan was the fun aunt. You just wanted to be with her all the time. She just has a way of lighting up a room and making everyone feel special.”
Much of her career with the Rockford Fire Department was before computers. Fire investigation reports had to be typed, proofread and filed. Copies had to be made. And handwritten phone messages had to be routed to the right people, said retired fire investigator Mark Marinaro.
Although she was a secretary, Brown had so many duties that she was more like an office manager, Marinaro said.
“She took care of a lot of things and she definitely took care of us,” Marinaro said. “She always kept an eye on us.”
After retiring, she worked for 13 years as a telecommunications specialist at Rockford University, but she always loved the fire service. She continued to attend — even after she became ill — dinners every few months with what they call the 20-Year Club for firefighters who have been in the fire service for 20 years or more, Marinaro said.
Fire Chief Michele Pankow said she got to know Brown when she worked at the headquarters as a training supervisor in the late 1990s. She noticed how organized Brown kept the Fire Prevention Division.
“She was a force to be reckoned with, 100 percent,” Pankow said. “She pretty much had everything in order. She was here before computers, for the most part. And so she was responsible for the organization. And I mean, she just really, really had everything in order.”
Jeff Kolkey covers government, economic development and other issues for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at (815) 987-1374, by email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and at X @jeffkolkey.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Janice Brown of Rockford will be remembered for her ‘love and kindness’
