Jan Wilkinson Approaches Life with Joy, Service, and a Sense of Wonder

Over the course of her life, Jan Wilkinson has taken to heart her parents’ mantra: “Don’t tell us you can’t do something until you try it.” From her childhood in south Georgia to her home in Mentone, Jan’s life has been rich with adventure, community involvement, and positivity that is contagious. At 86, she’s still embracing new experiences and reminding others, “You have to have fun.”

That tapestry of adventure began as Jan grew up in Dawson, Georgia. The family traveled quite a bit as a result of her father’s work in the peanut processing industry, igniting a passion in Jan for taking in new landscapes and meeting new people. Side note: Jan’s family knew and often intersected with President Jimmy Carter, also famously in the peanut industry. “Daddy did business with his family,” Jan says matter-of-factly.

Camp Days

At age 8, she attended Camp DeSoto for the first time and fell in love. With her typical zest, she savored the camp activities, friendships, and fostering of faith.

“One thing that the camp does is promote your love of God, and that’s a great thing for young people to have,” she says. That summer was the first of 10 spent at DeSoto. “They made me go home at the end of every session,” she laughs, “but I just loved being up here.”

Jan jokes about having reluctantly aged out of camp. But it was time to start college. She attended the University of Georgia as a fine arts major and later earned a Ph.D. in communication disorders.

A Knock on the Door

In 1959, she married John Wilkinson, an Army officer. They had met when he knocked on her family’s door one day. “I lived in a town in south Georgia, 60 miles from Fort Benning. Everybody in town used to entertain second lieutenants at Fort Benning when they were at basic training, because they were lonesome for home. He just knocked on the door one Sunday, and Mother said, ‘come right in,’ and he just never escaped.” This serendipitous meeting was the start of a long love story.

After they married, the couple embarked on a typically mobile military life. As an Army wife, Jan lived in Germany and traveled extensively, a life that didn’t intimidate her in the least after a childhood rich with new sights. “Daddy had peanut business all over the United States, and I was not unused to traveling and meeting new people. It didn’t bother me a bit.” Jan can still break into a bit of German at the drop of a hat.

Military life suited the young woman whose philosophy was and still is to make the most of wherever you happen to be in life. Her advice: “Be adventuresome, people,” she urges. “If you will smile at people and try to speak their language, if it’s just ‘hello’ or ‘thank you,’ they’ll take care of you.”

Though John, who served in the 82nd Airborne Infantry, saw a lot in the service, including two stints in Vietnam, the couple always looked at life as a glass half full. “You have to choose whether you’re going to have a good life or a poor life. There were Army wives who were miserable. I chose not to be. It was a good life. John was happy, so why not be happy?” Jan says.

The artist with her grandson Ben and great-granddaughter Ember.

Unusual Path to Mentone

After the couple visited the town where Jan had spent all those summers, John understood her attachment to the mountain. “My husband fell in love with the area, too. We used to come up in the summertime and stay at Nippersink Lodge.”

They came to own their property in an unusual manner.

“We were in North Carolina, and we had heard there was going to be an auction, and that was so shocking because nobody ever turned loose of their land over here.” John bid on and bought the land sight unseen. “When I moved up here, I felt like I was at camp all the time,” she says with a twinkle in her eye. Jan has lived on the scenic, wooded property ever since. Her husband passed away seven years ago.

Investment in Community

Jan hasn’t just lived here. She’s poured her heart and talents into meeting needs wherever she’s found them. For starters, she was a founding member of the Moon Lake Library, was actively involved in the Scouts, was a member of the Rhododendron Garden Club and a Master Gardener.

The 2018 ceremony at which Jan received the Silver Beaver Award for leadership in Scouting. With her are sons Ed (left) and Ransom (right).

Jan was a member of the founding committee that responded to the need for a library at Moon Lake School, initially providing books and developing children’s programs. “The school wanted a library, and we said we could put one together. We didn’t order books at first — we had books available, but then we found out that the school system supplied books to libraries, so we built it that way. We always had other programs like art programs for toddlers, we had a reading program, and a book club.” Ground was broken for the library in 2001 and the building was completed in 2002.

As The Groundhog reported in 2018, Jan’s extensive work with the Scouts earned her the Silver Beaver Award, which recognizes those of exceptional character who have provided distinguished service within a council. She and John both acted as advisors on the troop committee for Mentone’s Troop 106, and Jan taught several merit badge courses over the years. She even helped start a Boy Scout troop for missionary families in Burma (Myanmar). On the same day Jan received the Silver Beaver Award from the Scouts, Mayor Rob Hammond declared the date February 10 to be “Jan Wilkinson Day.”

The energy Jan invested in those young lives is “the kind of energy you want to spend,” she says.

Grandmommy Camp

Her own children and grandchildren gravitate to Jan’s nurturing wisdom. She has three sons, Bob, Ed, and Ransom (all Eagle Scouts, of course). Her seven grandchildren love to visit her, especially for what the family calls “Grandmommy Camp,” in which they hike, do crafts, make s’mores, stargaze, and all manner of other fun activities. Now her children are creating the same “camps” for their own kids.

“You gotta have fun,” says Jan, who embodies the French term joie de vivre, or joy for living.

An Artist at Heart

Jan remains a prolific artist, exploring various mediums, including oils, acrylics, and clay. A mural she painted in the nursery at First Baptist Church in Fort Payne remains there today. She also painted stunning Christian icons using an antique paint-layering system, making them for her grandchildren. Of late, she has many requests to paint portraits of people’s dogs, which she does in acrylic. Learning and creating all the time, she implores people to try new things instead of assuming a can’t-do attitude.

Lasting Legacy

Jan’s legacy of grace, kindness, curiosity, and encouragement will ripple through generations of those who’ve had the privilege of knowing her. It already has — she runs into adults whose lives she touched and whose children are in turn influenced in a positive way by things Jan taught their parents. If you have a chance to meet Jan Wilkinson, you’ll come away with a lift in your step and a sense of wonder and possibility for the future. Y