Janet Ann Morningstar

Janet Morningstar, a longtime resident of Grants Pass, recently passed away on August 11th while residing at Oak Lane Retirement at the youthful age of 94. She was well known and loved by close friends and family as a kind, loving, and incredibly selfless person. 
Born in 1928, Janet grew up in the throes of the Great Depression in Wisconsin before she and her family moved to California prior to World War II. During the war, she and her mother worked in various arms factories, including a Lockheed plant making P38 Lightnings, where her youth and small size allowed her to work in the cramped tails. It was there that she met her first husband, Delmer Celley, who was a young man in the Navy at the time, like her brother was. They would eventually marry in 1947, and they moved to the outskirts of Canyonville, where Delmer and his friend Eugene Morningstar became loggers, felling humongous trees in the area while Janet lived and worked out of an old Army hospital tent, often serving food to the many loggers that the family worked alongside. Five years after marrying, they had their son, Timothy, before Delmer's untimely death from a stroke in 1957. Three years later, Janet would marry Eugene Morningstar and the new family moved to Grants Pass where her mother and father had already moved. By 1970, Janet began her own pottery business called Morningstar Ceramics. Crafting things was always a passion of hers, which she continued to pursue later in life with her hand-made rugs and jewelry, and she would sell these at local fairs. Her other hobby included gardening, where she had an almost miraculous green thumb with even the most difficult of plants. She also had a great affinity for animals, including cats, and at any one point, she always owned at least one or two cats to be close to her. 
Janet is preceded in death by her mother, Kelly Ann Franzen, her father, Frank Nagler, her brother, Thomas Nagler, her second husband, Eugene Morningstar, her son, Timothy Morningstar, and her nephew, James Morningstar. She is survived by her grandson, Clark Morningstar, and her extended Michigan Family. A celebration of life is scheduled for Janet on September 18th, 2022 at Tom Pearce Park from 10 AM to 2 PM at the three pavilions. There will be opportunities for lunch and visiting with friends and family.