Locals pay tribute to life of community pillar Janet Klitch

OLD TOWN, Maine  — When Janet Klitch died in the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 18, it came as a shock to some locals who thought of the longtime community member as being so full of life that nothing could slow her down. 

Klitch was born in Massachusetts but moved to the Old Town area in the late 1950s. In her more than 50 years in Old Town, she dedicated her time to civic service and bettering the community. 

“I can’t put my finger on what made her so terrific … She was just Jan,” Diane Vatne said, who had met Klitch through the United Methodist Church. 

Klitch was a leader to her core, family and friends said. “She was involved in a little bit of everything,” her son, Tim Klitch said. 

She served on Old Town’s City Council, School Board, economic development committee, the River Coalition and founded a local community service organization, the Make Our Lives More Useful To Our Community club. 

She frequently helped with local organizations such as the Ronald McDonald House and more, according to her obituary. 

In 1976, she also served as mayor of Old Town. 

In most everything she did, Klitch was bold and stood firm in her convictions but not in a sanctimonious manner. “She wasn’t a shrinking violet,” Vatne said.

To Vatne, Klitch seemed like a feminist — though she didn’t need to parade a banner around proclaiming herself as one. “She didn’t let anything stop her. And she sure as heck didn’t let anything stop her because she was female.” 

That was especially true in the mid-1960s, as Klitch — a then-school board member — faced public controversy because she advocated for proper sex education in Old Town’s schools. 

In the United States, the rate of babies born to teenage mothers — specifically between ages 15 and 19 years old — was 70.6 per 1,000 in 1966 compared to the current rate of 17.4 per 1,000 girls of that age group, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. 

Janet Klitch (Contributed)

Klitch, who was a registered nurse and worked as a school nurse for Old Town in the 1980s and 1990s, advocated for teaching sex education to address teen pregnancy on a local scale.

Her strong beliefs sometimes ruffled feathers. Betsy Schultz, Klitch’s daughter, said around that time, someone had slashed the tires of their car — presumably because they didn’t want sex education taught. 

Not long after moving to Old Town in 1958, Klitch opened the Candy Cane Nursery School, which she ran from her home on Sunset Drive for almost two decades. 

David Mahan, a former Old Town mayor and city councilor, grew up knowing Klitch in many different capacities. He lived one street over from her and attended the Candy Cane Nursery with his brother and sister when they were children. 

As he got older, he recognized Klitch as the school nurse and later on, as a council member. “She was always upbeat, positive and willing to help out wherever and whenever she could,” Mahan said. “She had a heart of gold.”

“I will always remember her as someone that helped raise the neighborhood kids and always had the best interest of anyone she came in contact with,” he said. 

Lynn Chappelle Dyer, too, attended Klitch’s nursery as a child and saw her as the nurse for Old Town’s schools. In the mid-1990s, the two connected again as members of the Governor’s Restaurant Marching Band.

Klitch was always ready to play any instrument she could get her hands on, Chappelle Dyer said. Later, they both played for the Basin Street Dixieland Band, an all-female band with the exception of the occasional male guest performer. 

“She played her trumpet and sat right beside me as I played my clarinet since our parts were very similar and she would learn from the sometimes challenging rhythms … She was always so anxious to learn anything new and try to master it to her best efforts,” Chappelle Dyer said. 

Apart from music, Klitch also enjoyed flying. In 1975, she founded the first Flying Club at Central Maine Flying Services, now known as Dewitt Field. “My mom would try anything,” her son said. “So flying was just another challenge, that’s all.” 

“I also admired her for always stepping up to make her community a better place,” Chappelle Dyer said. “She was so dedicated and hard working in everything she was involved in.”

Klitch was a forever-student. After her nursing certification expired, she went back to school in the early 1990s. At the age of 60, she graduated with a degree in Community Health Education from the University of Maine while working full time as the school nurse. 

Peggy Manzer first became acquainted with Klitch when she took her youngest son to the Candy Cane Nursery to get help with a speech impediment. The nursery would be open only six more weeks until it closed for the summer but that turned out to be enough time. 

At the end of the six weeks, Manzer’s son no longer stuttered. “My husband and I have been very thankful to Jan for that,” she said. 

The two women became very close friends later in life. Klitch’s son and Manzer’s daughter married, bonding the two families. Whenever Manzer had a problem, she called Klitch to talk it out. 

“We didn’t see each other every day but I had her number and she had mine.” 

Klitch was assertive, Manzer said. Shortly before she died, Klitch told her friend to start going for daily walks, even though Manzer preferred to swim. She told Manzer to walk on Littlefield Lane, away from traffic, instead of by her home on Bennoch Road. 

Manzer laughed recalling the conversation with her friend, in which she, an 87-year-old woman, was being told what to do. That was Klitch’s nature; she could be forceful but ultimately, she had her loved ones’ best interests in mind. 

“I got a kick out of Jan because she was not at all shy at sharing her opinion. Jan was a special, special person.”

But aside from her civic service and professional work, Klitch’s true passion was gardening. 

That’s how her daughter, Schultz, thinks her mother would like to be remembered. “A gardener is always an optimist,” she said. 

“Even as she put her last vegetable garden to bed at the age of 88, she was planning what new vegetables she could grow next year to share with her friends. She nurtured her family, friends and community in the same loving way.”