Janice Cowan was born on April 9th, 1932 to Frederick and Georgia Retting in Long Beach, CA. She was one of two children and leaves behind a brother Frederick. As a young lady she met and married Richard Cowan and they had had six children: starting with Rick, David (deceased) and daughters, JorJana (deceased), Ronell, Michele and Danette. She also leaves behind eight grandchildren: Lisa, Julie, Jennifer, Dallas, Jessica, Daniel, Heinz and Aja. There are also 6 great grandchildren: Joshua, Mathew, Nicholas, Brooklynn, Kovika and Chloe. After raising eight children and numerous grands and greats, she found time to go to school at Long Beach City College and obtain her ASN in Nursing. She eventually continued her education at Cal State Long Beach where she obtained her Masters in Nursing and her Nurse Practitioner certification, along with her teaching credential. She began her career in nursing on the Women's Oncology unit at Long Beach Memorial for twelve years. Then she proceeded to take a job at Kaiser Permanente of Bellflower in the GI unit, for twenty three years. After her long stint in Nursing she chose to retire. After a while she became bored and decided that she wanted to give back to the community and started teaching at Long Beach City College in the Nursing program. She taught nursing from the fall of 2002 until 2010 when she became ill and couldn't continue with her beloved teaching to the young. Ms. Cowan has created many middle class families through devout dedication to encouraging young men and especially women to pursue an education. Momma enjoyed, of all things, her beloved Lakers and Kobe Bryant. She even named one of her pets Kobe out of affection for her star player, whom she considered to be her son. Her other joys, besides love for her family, Nursing, Lakers and friends from Kaiser, were Civic Light Opera and attending the theater. Her hobbies also included reading and water aerobics, but most of all she enjoyed helping others succeed through obtaining a Nursing degree. She carried great civic pride in Long Beach. She carried her Catholic belief with her until she passed. This remarkable little woman will be very missed. We will be celebrating her life at St. Cornelius Church on Saturday, 6-21-14 at 9:00 am in Long Beach.
May the Lord continue to bless your family as we try to instill a little bit of Janice Cowan in all of us – the desire to help our fellow brothers and sisters.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
3 Entries
June 20, 2014
Julie Vandenbrook
I will always be thankful for the love you have given B and me....I will keep you in my heart until it stops beating! I love you my one and only mommy...
June 20, 2014
Lisa Vandenbrook
Thank you Nana for so many things ... But especially for time when I was in labor for the first time and you did LaMaze with me until my C-section. Then you watched my. 2 nd C -Section and I let you name him Matthew . You were the first one who saw him and he could get away with anything ! He was "Nana 's favorite. You were a great nana and an amazing nurse. Thank you , Nana. I love you.
June 20, 2014
Gigi Ruiz
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