Janice "Jan" McGowan

Janice “Jan” McGowan, 79, of Sidney, formerly of Chappell and North Platte, passed away late Sunday night, August 12, 2018 at the Sidney Regional Medical Center.  Janice spend her last days on the earth lovingly attended by her family and friends until she was welcomed into the loving arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Memorials services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, August 17, 2018 at the United Methodist Church in Chappell with Pastors Leonard Suhr and Dave Abbott officiating. Burial will be held at 1:30 p.m. in the Mennonite Cemetery east of Chappell.

Cremation has taken place and there will be no visitation.

Memorials in Jan’s name can be made to the donor’s choice.

Holechek-Bondegard Funeral Home and Cremations in Chappell is serving the Christensen and McGowan families.

Jan was born August 2, 1939 at Wellman, Iowa to Irwin and Gladys (Roth) Booth.  She was the oldest of 6 children.  The family moved to Chappell, Nebraska, where she spent her childhood years and attended school. 

She married Gilbert Christensen in 1955 and continued to live at Chappell on the family farm where they raised their five children.  Janice attended the Assembly of God Church and taught her children at an early age the importance of having Christ in your life.  She worked at TRW in Ogallala for several years.  The couple divorced, and Janice moved to Lodgepole where she owned and operated a popular local café, The Coffee Cup.   She was an excellent cook and shared many recipes still used by family and friends to this day.  Jan was a blessing to many people there and created many lifelong friendships that continued until her passing.

Janice sold her café and moved to North Platte and worked many years at Roger’s Restaurant and the Super 8 Hotel and again created many lifelong friendships.  She was a diligent, hard worker at whatever she did and was greatly appreciated by her fellow workers.

On January 11, 1988, she married Gerald McGowan at North Platte.  After their retirement, they traveled and attended many antique tractor shows in Nebraska and neighboring states.  They especially enjoyed their trips to Branson, Missouri.  Jerry and Jan had many happy years together until his passing in 2014. 

After Jerry’s passing she moved to Sidney to be closer to her family.  In Sidney she attended the Nazarene Church until her health started to fail.

She is survived by her son, Donald Christensen of Longmont, CO; daughters, Debra Christensen of Tucson, AZ and Sandra (Jim) Bondegard of Lodgepole, NE; sisters, Bonnie Palser of Otis, Colorado and Gwen Jencks of Greeley, Colorado; sister-in-law Joyce Booth, wife of Bill of Albany, Oregon; brother-in-law, Dean Dye, husband of Carolyn of North Platte.  Janice will be greatly missed by her family, extended family, and many friends.  “Granny Janny” will be especially missed by her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Heaven is sounding sweeter all the time.

She is preceded in death by her parents; husband, sisters, Carolyn Dye, brother, William Booth, daughters, Brenda Wamsley and Susan Glanz, and infant granddaughter, Michelle Anderson.