Janet Ann Bartek, "Jan",was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma December 30, 1954 to John and Ione Kerr, who she loved dearly. Her family moved to Houston, Texas where Jan graduated from high school.
Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin and then earned her Certified Public Accountant certificate. Jan did income tax work in Houston, Texas, Melbourne, Florida and Chicago, Illinois before coming to Tulsa.
In 1998, Jan met Bill Wright while they were doing volunteer work for SACS (Singles Available for Community Service). Bill and Jan's first date was on the Fourth of July, the fireworks flew and they were inseparable after that. Jan had a lot of fun and helped many good causes with SACS.
Jan was also active in the Tulsa Ski Club for a time. Jan and Bill loved their travels with the ski club traveling to Innsbruck, Austria (where they took side trips to Venice, Italy, Vienna, Austria, and Munich, Germany), Whistler and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Georgetown, Grand Cayman and San Pedro, Belize. They also enjoyed ski club trips to Colorado, California, and New Mexico. Jan treasured her memories of the people and places she met and experienced with the Tulsa Ski Club.
Jan and Bill were married on October 25, 2001 between two coconut trees on a beach in San Pedro, the island of Ambergris Caye, in Belize. They enjoyed traveling and went to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and Hawaii to snorkel, dive and enjoy the beach. Places they enjoyed included: Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, St. Thomas, USVI, St. John, USVI, Nassau, Bahamas, Aruba, Curacao, Cancun, Cozumel, Costa Rica, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Maui and Hawaii.
Jan and Bill also took a trip to Egypt where they traveled down the Nile and visited wondrous sites such as the pyramids, the Sphinx, Giza, Luxor, the Aswan dam, Abu Simbel, Cairo and Sharm al-Sheik on the Red Sea.
Jan loved all animals especially cats and she and Bill have four, Yoda, Skywalker, Chadoe and Sophie. Jan enjoyed playing endless games of backgammon with Bill at home, in airports and on the beach and she did crossword puzzles daily. Jan and Bill re-modeled their house to fit a pool table that also brought hours of fun.
Jan was a kind gentle person who will be missed by her survivors: her father John Kerr of Tulsa, her sister and brother-in-law Lynn and Dan Harvey and niece Christina of California and her husband Bill Wright of Tulsa.
A Funeral Mass will be held at 2:30 P.M. Thursday, September 18, 2014 at Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church.