Janet Jensen Nooteboom passed away on April 14 at St John’s Retirement Community in Woodland, California, from heart failure.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 10, 1925, to talented sculptors, Holger and Helen Jensen, she grew up in Santa Monica Canyon near Los Angeles. In World War II, she was an airplane riveter for Douglas Aircraft.
During the final year of the war, she was hired as a copy girl for the Los Angeles Times. She was then hired as an assistant of the gallery of noted art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor, the father of actress Elizabeth Taylor. Janet later became Taylor’s personal assistant.
In 1951 Janet married John Nooteboom, an engineer and sailing fanatic. They raised their family in Pacific Palisades from 1956 until John’s retirement in 1980, when they moved to the Bay Area, residing in San Jose, then Tiburon, until 2012.
Janet enjoyed all creatures, plants and nature, as well as opera, jazz and folk music. She especially liked to meet and converse with people from all over the world and all walks of life.
Janet was preceded in death by her husband, John, and daughter, Jan, and by her brothers, Bryan, Joel and Mark. She is survived by her sons, Ken and Gary Nooteboom, and her nieces, Lindsay Jensen, Robyn Garcia and Kari Jensen, and nephew, Joel Jensen, plus numerous grand-nieces and nephews.
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