Janice Kay Romeiser

     Janice Kay (Rothe) Romeiser of Hartford, Kansas passed away peacefully at home on October 22, 2023. She was 79 years old. Janice was born at St. Rose Hospital in Great Bend, Kansas on September 12, 1944, to Herman and Vola Rothe of Rush County, Kansas. Janice was the oldest of five children. Janice began her formal education in a one-room schoolhouse on her parents’ farm. She graduated from Otis High School in 1962 and went on to Fort Hays State University and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. Janice married Gary Lynn Romeiser on June 2, 1963, in Otis, Kansas and they had two children, Scott Alan and Erin Lea Romeiser.

     Janice spent more than fifty years of her life teaching and educating young minds. Early in her career, Janice taught at Timken, Bazine, Pawnee Rock, and Quinter, Kansas. In 1972, Janice and Gary moved to Hartford, Kansas, and Janice began her nearly thirty-year tenure as the fifth-grade teacher at Neosho Rapids Elementary School. Janice was known as “Mrs. R.” by her students and she holds the status of “favorite teacher” to many. Janice spent the last eighteen years of her career at USD 253 as a resource teacher, a literacy coach, and the coordinator of the Teachers College Resource Center at Emporia State University. Janice was inducted into the Kansas Teachers’ Hall of Fame in 2002 and was recognized as a Kansas Master Teacher in 2011. She retired in 2018 and pursued her lifelong hobbies of sewing, quilting, and spending time with family and friends.

     In August 2007, Janice combined her loves of literacy and sewing to create the Read to Your Bunny early literacy promotion project. Read to Your Bunny provides a handmade bunny and a welcome packet consisting of early literacy information and the book “Read to Your Bunny” by Rosemary Wels to each newborn baby at Newman Regional hospital in Emporia, Kansas. Janice and fellow educator Eleanor Browning worked tirelessly to sew bunnies, hold “Bunny Bees” in which volunteers stuffed bunnies and put together bunny welcome packets, and to coordinate volunteers and community partnerships for Read to Your Bunny. They partnered with Emporia NEA, Kiwanis, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, the United Way of the Flint Hills, and countless other community organizations over the years who donated funds and volunteered to keep the Read to Your Bunny project going. Janice was overjoyed to know that the Read to Your Bunny project lives on as a project sponsored by the United Way of the Flint Hills.

     As much as Janice loved her family, friends, education, sewing, quilting, and Read to Your Bunny, the ultimate joy in her life was her three grandchildren, Scott Lawrence, Jenae Catherine, and Melissa Jace Romeiser. Janice was an amazing grandmother. She adored her three grandbabies and cherished every moment she spent with them. An obituary cannot possibly capture all the wonderful things Janice accomplished in life. Janice was a beautiful human being who was beloved by all who knew her. She will be missed by all whose lives she touched.

Janice is survived by her two children, Scott Alan (Elizabeth) of Morrowville, Kansas, and Erin Romeiser of Crawfordville, Florida, and her three grandchildren, Scott Lawrence, Jenae Catherine, and Melissa Jace Romeiser. She is also survived by her brother Jimmy Rothe of Bison, Kansas; her brother Don Rothe of Rush County, Kansas; her sister Paula Rothe of Hutchinson, Kansas; and her sister Nancy Robinson of Newton, Kansas, as well as many beloved nieces and nephews. Janice was predeceased by her parents, Herman and Vola Rothe, as well as her husband of sixty years, Gary Lynn Romeiser.

     The family would like to thank Home Town Health Care, Hand in Hand Hospice, and Chelsis Andrews for the kindness and care they provided to Janice. We would also like to thank all of our friends and neighbors in the community of Hartford who have always loved and supported Janice.

     A celebration of Janice’s life will be celebrated at the Hartford United Methodist Church in Hartford Kansas at 10:30am on Saturday November 4, 2023. The memorial service will be followed by the inurnment of Janice’s cremains at the Hartford Cemetery and a luncheon at the Hartford Community Center. Memorial gifts may be made to Read to Your Bunny, c/o United Way of the Flint Hills, 702 Commercial St., Suite 2E, Emporia, Kansas, 66801. Condolences may be expressed at vanarsdalefs.com.