WA - Janet Dana Kavadas (née Head), also known earlier in life as Janet Twight, passed away on April 19, 2025, in Shoreline, Washington, after a long illness. While we grieve her loss, we know that she had a long and interesting life. As one friend said, "Jan did a lot with her long time on the planet. And she left it a better place."

Jan was a retired social worker, a management analyst for the State of Washington, an advertising sales rep for the Edmonds Enterprise, the Third Age, and the Woodinville Weekly, the Executive Director of Citizens for the Improvement of Nursing Homes, a staff member at Pathways for Women in Lynnwood, and a popular teacher and swim instructor at the Dale Turner YMCA.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jan spent her early years in New England, where Maine and Massachusetts became home. She was joined after 2 years by her younger sister, Barbara Murdock (nee Head). Their father, Francis Head, worked as a landscape architect (with a branch of the Olmsted Bros.) and innkeeper, while her mother, Miriam Chapman Head, spent time raising their family before passing away while Jan and her sister were were in high school.

Jan graduated from Bangor High School in 1948 and went on to attend the University of Maine as a commuter student. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She later earned her Master's Degree in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1955, where she also minored in mathematics and worked in the university library. A highlight in those years was a trip to Europe on a boat, with friends to Germany and France.

Following her studies, Janet taught sociology to nursing students at the Johns Hopkins nursing school. Then she moved west for civilian work in the U.S. Army's Human Subjects Research department at Fort Bliss, Texas. A lifelong Unitarian, she joined the church in El Paso, where she met Army soldier Ben Twight. They married in September 1957 after a brief courtship. (Which included a night watching toads cross the road and getting spoken to by local law enforcement for sitting on the road in the dark.) They escaped a ticket, however, as the officer realized he knew them from church.

After Ben's honorable discharge from the Army, he accepted a position as a ranger in Yosemite National Park. Their family grew with the birth of Mark. Janet helped to create a swim school for children of park rangers. Years later Dana swam in the pool in Yosemite where she learned to swim. The family also skied at Badger Pass, and were active in park life. After several years, Ben applied for a new role as a ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park, in Washington State. They lived at Ohanapecosh where Janet was a homemaker and homeschooled her children. Both kids learned to read while before the age of 4. Now they skied at White Pass, and shopped for groceries in Auburn (once a month, our two carts there were like going to Costco today.)

The family moved to Seattle, WA in 1966 where Ben entered graduate school at the UW College of Forestry, and Janet went to work for the City of Seattle, and worked for Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). After Ben earned his Ph.D, they were divorced in 1972. From then on my mom had an eclectic and rewarding work career, using all of her skills. One summer she was the manager of Wedgwood Pool! In 1982 she married her second husband, Paul Peter Kavadas, whom she had met while commuting to Olympia on a commuter bus. Their wedding joke was that they had slept together for five years before getting married! To accommodate their two jobs, they settled in Edmonds, WA in order to split the difference. Paul had also worked for Boeing, and at the time of his death in 1992, was a self-employed right of way agent.

Jan was a dedicated fan of the Everett Aquasox, Seattle Mariners, Seattle Opera, the Seattle Symphony. She swam for PNA Masters swimming for more than 30 years.

At age 77, Janet was hired at the new Dale Turner YMCA, as their aqua fitness instructor. She taught Mon-Fri for about 7 years. She came back to work after 6 weeks after hip surgery. We are told that YMCA staff loved her, and one reason was that she wasn't on her phone at work. She had to quit work due to her illness, (dementia), but we didn't know that diagnosis at the time.

Jan moved into Aegis of Shoreline in 2018. In 2019, after a stroke, she moved into Aegis Callahan House. Our family would like to thank the entire staff at Callahan House, especially those in the Queen Anne neighborhood.

Survivors include daughter Dana Twight of Edmonds, son Mark Twight of Montana, and grandchild Andrea Carey (Leigh Ann) of North Carolina. Other surviving relatives include family in WA, AK, MA, NC and VA.

Throughout her life, Janet remained committed to education, service, and athletics. Her journey took her across the country, but her dedication to helping others remained constant.