Janet Beatrice Ellingwood
The fourth daughter of Cudge Ellingwood and Ruth Short, born at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1928, a lively girl whom polio left with a misshapen foot that never kept her out of sports. She married Bill Belmondo, whom she met at Washington State College, in 1952, and taught elementary school at Renton and Tukwila for about twenty-five years. Mother of Jeff, Craig, Janet and Brad; she died at Kent, Washington, in 2019.
Life
- 1928Born14 May 1928, Madison, Wisconsin
Her father's memoir and her obituary agree.
- 1930LivedMadison, Dane County, Wisconsin
In her parents' household, as "Jeanette B." Attached in the Ancestry tree; not checked here.
documentedprobable - 1937LivedNov 1937, Spokane, Washington
With her parents; Lewis and Clark High School.
- 1952LivedRenton, Washington
With her husband Bill Belmondo, who lived all his life at Renton; they also lived in Seattle (Cudge's memoir).
- 〃Married William Oliver Belmondo22 Jun 1952
"Right after school closed on Hune[?] 22, 1952" in her father's memoir (scan 163); 22 June 1952 in her husband's obituary.
- 1985Lived
- 2019Died1 Jan 2019, Kent, Washington
Her obituary; she had died before her brother Dick (his obituary, April 2019).
Family
- Father
- Mother
- Spouse
4 children
- Private
- Private
- Private
- Private
Pedigree
Notes
The fourth daughter, born at Madison on 14 May 1928, “from the first” with a happy, lively and generous spirit. At about five, at the family camp on Little St. Germaine Lake, she caught her first fish off the dock, an eighteen-inch fish she proudly called a pickle. In the Madison polio epidemic of about 1934 she suddenly found she could not walk; her parents massaged her leg and ankle several times a day, and the polio left her with a misshapen foot for life, though it never kept her out of swimming and other sports (Cudge’s memoir, scans 103, 110, 116-117).
The family moved to Spokane in 1937, and she graduated from Lewis and Clark High School. She worked a year at the Columbia Electric Company before college, dressing its dirty display windows on her own time and scrambling the executives’ calls when she tried the switchboard: “That was, and is, Janet.” At Washington State College she “went out for everything she could go out for,” and joined Kappa Kappa Gamma rather than her sisters’ Alpha Gamma Delta; her obituary has a year at Eastern Washington College too. In her last year she met Bill Belmondo, and they were married on 22 June 1952, the last of the four daughters’ weddings (scans 162-163; obituary).
She taught elementary school for about twenty-five years in the Renton and Tukwila school districts. As a mother she kept up her parents’ standard of punctuality, getting her children everywhere on time (scan 112), and her father admired the family’s mountain hikes after mushrooms. She and Bill were married sixty-three years, until his death in 2015. She died at Kent on 1 January 2019, survived by her sisters Ruth and Joyce, her brother Dick, her four children, Jeff, Craig, Janet and Brad, ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren (her obituary).
Her name was Janet Beatrice, as her obituary gives it; the 1930 census, as the Ancestry tree carries it, has “Jeanette B.”
Cudge's memoir
At about five, at the family camp on Little St. Germaine Lake, Janet caught her first fish off the dock, an 18-inch fish she proudly called a pickle.
there she was holding up an 18 inch fish yelling "I caught a pickle. I caught a pickle." She was about 5 years old.
p. G13 →Janet, the fourth daughter, was born on 14 May 1928, and from the first showed a happy, lively and generous spirit.
Janet was next, a sweet, sweet little baby, on May 14, 1928. ... From the first Janet showed the happy, lively spirit she has always had, always sensitive to others, generous and helpful.
p. G20 →As a mother Janet kept up her parents' standard of punctuality, getting her children everywhere on time.
I notice whenever I go to visit Janet, she usually has her kids organized and on time for swimming practice or out to the baseball field or whatever they are going to do.
p. G22 →During a polio epidemic in Madison, about 1934, Janet suddenly found she could not walk; the doctor diagnosed polio and her parents massaged her leg and ankle several times a day.
She got up and started towards me and fell down. She said, "Daddy, I can't walk." ... Ruth and I looked at each other, and a cold fear went through our hearts.
p. G26 →The polio left Janet with a misshapen foot for life, though it never kept her out of swimming and other sports.
The arch of Janet's foot stopped growing for awhile, and it was slightly misshapen so that she has had that crippled foot all of her life. ... it didn't keep her from being active in swimming and other sports
p. G27 →After working a year at Columbia Electric in Spokane, Janet threw herself into everything at Washington State College, joining Kappa Kappa Gamma rather than her sisters' sorority.
She got down to college, and she went out for everything she could go out for, and with her usual animation was into a lot of things.
p. I29 →At Columbia Electric Janet told the office manager the display windows looked dirty and then dressed them herself on her own time; she married Bill Belmondo in June 1952.
So they told her to dress them up. She did, - and on her own time. That was, and is, Janet.
p. I-30 →Driving on a family trip, Janet's quick reactions avoided a collision with a speeding car in Iowa.
Janet was driving and pulled to the right to the shoulder, but the speedster shot across the lane to the same shoulder; but Jan was quick to react and pulled back on the road
p. I37 →
Pictures
Connections
- In her ancestry
- 60 notable connections →
Every notable ancestor and famous relative that Janet's own ancestors lead to, with the lines drawn down to her.