Jan Negley was born Janice Ruth Lankton on February 28, 1938, in Peoria, Illinois, the youngest child and only daughter of J. Fletcher Lankton, one of Peoria’s most prominent architects, and Frieda Lankton. Her father kept his boats at the IVY Club on the Illinois River, and it was there, when Jan was a junior in high school, that she met a young man named Mike Negley who worked on the boats at the club.

They both went on to the University of Illinois — Mike in Alpha Tau Omega, Jan in Alpha Chi Omega and various other school clubs including the yearbook committee — and they married while both were still students. Their first son, David, arrived as Jan finished her last semester of college, and the family she and Mike built together across nearly seventy years of marriage became the great work and joy of her life: David, Bruce, Ellen, and Daniel.

Jan and Mike raised their children in Peoria, and she made sure they grew up like she had — on the water. In the family’s most storied adventure, she and Mike took the kids out of school and sailed with them for months through the Caribbean, turning an ordinary school year into the voyage of their lives.

Her faith was an important part of her life. She was devoted to her church, and for years she volunteered in prison ministry, sitting with incarcerated women to talk about faith, hope, and second chances — work she did without fanfare, because she believed every person deserved to be seen.

Her hands were never still. She was a wonderful baker, a gifted seamstress, and an endlessly creative maker of crafts — an artist in a dozen small ways (a gift she passed on to all of her children, including to her daughter Ellen, a painter). She loved to travel and saw much of the world with Mike; of all their journeys, she treasured most the Alaskan cruise in 2015 with the entire family aboard. And there was always a dog at her feet.

After Peoria, Jan and Mike moved to the Tampa Bay area, and they spent their final years together in Lake Worth, Florida, near the water where they had always been happiest.

Jan is survived by her beloved husband of nearly seventy years, Mike; her children David (Lilian), Bruce (Giselle), Ellen (Emilio), and Daniel (Stacey); her grandchildren Briana, Amanda, Wyatt, and Mason; and her cherished Westie, Sailor. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brothers, Harold and Gordon Lankton.

She was a mother, grandmother, sailor, baker, maker, traveler, and friend. She loved her family very much.