Janice L. Starkweather, age 43, of New Woodstock, passed away Thursday December 16, 2021, surrounded by her loving family, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse after fighting a short battle with colon cancer that had spread too far.
She was born July 9, 1978, in Hamilton, the daughter of loving parents Walter Starkweather and Karlotta (Eaves). She was raised by her father in New Woodstock and attended Cazenovia Central School, while also volunteering for local organizations to help the needy. She enjoyed spending time with her grandpa and grandma Bob and Bea Anderson in Cazenovia. She had also been an active member of the New Woodstock Volunteer Fire Department Fireman’s Ladies Auxiliary for years. She then worked at various jobs in the area, including years ago opening Caroline’s local convenience store most mornings, where she made many new local friends, both young and the older hamlet icons.
As a young woman she moved briefly to Myrtle Beach, SC with friends but become homesick and moved back to New Woodstock to her father’s home, where she took up vegetable gardening for home use and selling the excess street side. When her father purchased a fixer upper house on Main Street, she became a homebody, helping him remodel it as well as painting the entire living space. She took great pride in growing a large garden and sold bushels of vegetables street side each year, on top of enjoying doing all the yard work and mowing the lawn with her new riding mower.
Janice loved animals, rescuing more than a few cats that appeared to have been abandoned, slowly earning their trust and befriending them forever. She also would make friends with the mother and her baby woodchucks that would take up living under our barn each Spring, able to hand feed them all. Her many bird feeders were never allowed to be empty, nor let Blue Jays or chipmunks to go without peanuts being tossed to them or fed from her hand.
Janice enjoyed celebrating all holidays and would prepare great meals for most, including baking fancy desserts. She would insist that her father decorate the outside of the house for each holiday. She also loved browsing the internet, maintaining her Farmville game, posting on Facebook and following many Conservative news sites. She also took pride in the fact that she had been alcohol free for over eight years.
Janice was predeceased by her mother Karlotta, all her grandparents and her fiancé Jim Dewan. She is survived by her father Walter, her siblings Linda Starkweather and Lee Morningstar. She is also remembered with fondness by her uncles Karl, David, Eric, Jeff, James and Rod, their spouses, her many cousins, as well as her stepfather Ronald Harms, her mother’s second husband.
Funeral services will be private, with burial in New Woodstock Cemetery, in a spot where the sunsets she so loved will shine on her for eternity. There will be a celebration of Janice’s life at the New Woodstock Fire Station on Mill Street on Jan. 9, 2022, starting at 1 p.m. All who knew or had a part of Janice’s life are invited to attend.
In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to the 501c3 group Wayward Paws, Inc., 9048 Delhi Falls Road, New Woodstock, NY 13122. To leave a message of sympathy for the Starkweather family, please visit michaelebrownfuneralservices.com.
