Janet McMannis

Janet Ann McMannis, age 78 of Lake Walker/Govans/Baltimore passed away Saturday, February 27, 2021. Born in Los Angeles, CA, the beloved daughter of the late John Francis McMannis and Wanda (Meeker) McMannis; loving mother of Mary Haber and husband David of Govans/Baltimore; proud grandmother of Ella and Caleb Haber; cherished companion of Walt Dent of Lake Walker/Baltimore. She was a retired fund raiser. Raising much needed funds for the BSO, Center Stage, and other arts organizations across the country. She will be lovingly remembered by her family and friends.

A private viewing and burial will be held on Friday, March 5, 2021 and a community memorial via Zoom on Saturday, March 13th at 12:00 P.M. Please email Jenn Coonee at jenncoonce@gmail.com for the Zoom link.  A public in-person celebration will be held the spring of 2022, when the dangers of COVID have passed.

February 27th, 2021. The predicted month was upon us once again. The clock struck 4:20 PM. And with that, Janet Ann McMannis let her vibrant scarf catch the breath of the wind a final time before exiting stage left with a whirling “Adieu.” If one listened hard enough on that windy Saturday, trained ears may have even caught her alto rising high above the normal heavenly din to reorganize the music of spheres into a proper jazz band.

An entrance like no other, filled with sound and fury. Signifying everything.

But the tomorrows creeping as shadows in our mind yet played are for reflection another day. Instead let us remember a rainy September 14th in 1942.

Into this Silent Generation burst forth the loud colors of our Janet Ann McMannis, and dreamers of every age were now guaranteed a champion. This rebel daughter of Wanda Kathleen Meeker, herself a daughter of Irish South Dakotan homesteaders, and John Francis McMannis, a staid transplanted Iowan farmer, became a mirror for the wild and crazy streets of Los Angeles, very likely horrifying her conservative parents. Yet she found even those streets too tame for her teenage years. With hope unbound, she sought refuge in the arts, acting, and singing. Janet dimmed the very lights of tinsel town with her own bright personality.

And brilliant it was. Electric. A technicolor dream coat of a soul that pulled all those romantics, all those lost, all those wayward adventurers who may have been too afraid to admit they were adventurers, into risk. Into life. Into possibility.

She surely knew what dreams may come and was unafraid to discover those countries beyond. There were mishaps, too many to count. But that is the way of things, and Janet was (dare we say) violently unafraid of them. Without this fear, she was free to find herself exploring the untamed wilds of Tippy Hedron’s tiger sanctuary, or dancing unabashed beside Jane Fonda rocking leg warmers all her own, or most importantly, raising her daughter Mary Kathleen Haber as a single mother alongside her oldest friend Diane Jean McBain. Two single ladies bolstered by the ever-expanding adopted McMannis clan.

With nary a traitorous doubt, Janet would never lose the good she might do by fearing to make an attempt. That unwavering fierceness to do what was right and good for her friends in need (damn the consequences) further grew her family from coast to coast and beyond. Apartments offered to young women looking for a start. Tender encouragement for the doubter needing a bit of a kick to perform. Papers scattered mid-workday as she dashed away to support an exhausted friend caring for a loved one five cities away.  When in need, she may have never been three hours too soon, but she was never a minute too late.

Fearlessness. Pure fearlessness to strut and fret her hour upon this stage.

She taught this to her daughter and to her grandchildren Ella Ruth and Caleb Michael Haber. Have no doubts. Have no fear. Be an embarrassment because there is nothing to be ashamed of. And from within that space, we may know what we are, but not what we may be. Imagine a holiday, any holiday, and a gift, wrapped with bows and glitter and ribbons and shiny tinkling bells. It matters not what was given on this holiday, but rather how it was presented by Janet in all its theatrical glory, like a rehearsal suspended behind thick velvet drapes, the unknown all hidden away with sparkling packaging to be unwrapped with that first curtain rise.

Even if you only spent five minutes pierced by her blue gaze, she likely taught you this lesson as well. That trip to France? Go for it. Should you meet a long-lost friend for a weekend rendezvous in London? Sure. Why not? Want to introduce yourself to your idol backstage? Well, there’s a trapdoor right there, what’s the harm in pretending we’re stage hands…

Those who were touched by her have a thousand, thousand such stories. Perhaps that is why she was so successful as a fundraiser for nonprofits in L.A., for Brooklyn Academy of Music and New York Philharmonic, for the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Pittsburgh and Charlotte Arts’ scene. Most significantly, she worked and volunteered for decades assisting the Baltimore Opera Company, Center Stage, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Everyman Theatre, Memorial Players, the Spotlighters Theatre, and any small company where the play is the thing to catch our conscience. Her passion attracted like-minded dreamers, and she allowed them the space to fail up and somehow chase hope with freedom.

The life she lived, the life we shared with her, poured grace into us by the force of her eccentricities. Sure wine glasses broke, appointments were missed, the practicalities of adulthood were frequently swatted aside. But as with all things, balance is found in love looking not with the eyes, but with the mind, whether lighted upon in her early years with Michael Hayes or in the last fourteen with Walt Dent, who found a way to temper her impulsive feeling with patience and understanding.

And as we all discovered, a little patience and a bit of understanding gave the gift of Janet to us all.  Perhaps the grace was a bit rough and unsanded, but grace it is nonetheless, cheering us along our practical paths, with a vodka martini in one hand and endless possibility in the other.

A private viewing and burial will be held on March 5th and a community memorial via Zoom on March 13th.  A public in-person celebration will be held the spring of 2022, when the dangers of COVID have passed.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory can be directed to the Everyman Theatre Educational Programs.  https://everyman.secure.force.com/donate/?dfId=a0q2K0000098qOtQAI&

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Janet McMannis, please visit our floral store.