Janice Cleo Chouanard

Janice Chouanard, age 90, passed away on June 2, 2026 after a decline in health at the Benedictine Living Community of St. Peter. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 16, at the Catholic Church of St. Peter in St. Peter. Visitation will be 9:00-11:00 a.m. on Tuesday at the church in St. Peter. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery in St. Peter. Memorials may be directed to: John Ireland School, the American Cancer Society, or the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. 

Janice Cleo Kaveney was born July 23, 1935 as the youngest child of Myrtle F. Kaveney and Lewis P. Kaveney in St Peter, Minnesota. Her older siblings were Grace R. Kaveney, John L. “Bud” or “Big Lou” Kaveney and Wayne T. Kaveney. She had two half siblings, Florence Rybus and Ernest Day.

Janice grew up at the Kaveney home in St Peter spending 13 summers at the Cracker Box on Conner’s Point at Lake Washington.

She was baptized at St. Peter’s Catholic Church and was a member of that parish all her life. She attended John Ireland Grade School and then graduated from St Peter High School in 1953. She was a good student who enjoyed reading and participated in marching and concert band, playing the clarinet.

She married in 1953 and had eight children. Besides the task of raising eight children, she worked outside the home as a telephone operator, a laundress at Community Hospital, a Green Giant employee during “corn pack”, and an assembler at ADC (later Onan) until that plant closed.

She loved reading, games, cards, baking and especially her family and friends.

Janice is survived by her children: Cynthia (Terry) Lynch, daughter-in-law, Charlotte (Mark) Harguth, Ronald (Jane) Chouanard, James (Nancy) Chouanard, Michael (Crystal Henken) Chouanard, Maureen (Michael) Gieseke, Daniel (Gina) Chouanard, and Howard (Mary) Chouanard. Also survived by her grandchildren: Aaron, Matthew, Drew (Elie), Tyler, Andrey (Ashlynn), Ryan, Brent (Sun), Maggie (Isaac), Caroline (Brian), Madeleine, Jeffrey (Shae), Nicole (Dan), Jacob, Taylor, Cody (fiancée Claire), and Colin; great grandchildren: Kerragyn, Giavanna, and Vanessa, Braden and Evan, Dayson and Regan, John and Ava, Arthur, Josie and Maya, and Hazel; sister in-law Elizabeth “Betty” Kaveney, seven nephews, four nieces, and a half nephew.

She was preceded in death by her eldest son, Charles Chouanard, a grand-daughter-in-law, Aly Lynch, her parents, Myrtle and Lewis Kaveney, and all of her siblings.