My daughter, Naomi Sweetman, is the DARE Coordinator for the State of Alaska.  My granddaughter, Cassandra Sweetman, is a graphic artist in Anchorage. 

Son, John Nelson, is the Manager for Key Bank in Palmer.  He and his wife, Dawn, have given me three grandchildren:  Emily, Melissa, and Jesse.  Melissa will make me a great grandmother in April!  My oldest son, Randy Breen, is the CEO of SGN.com in San Francisco and has been in the gaming industry for a number of years.  He has two boys, Connor and Aiden.

I am very, very proud of my children.  They are my greatest accomplishment!  We got off to an extremely rough start, but have come through with flying colors.  They are productive and talented, are wonderful parents and have made successful lives for themselves and their families.  I couldn’t wish for more!

I married John Newton, also in our class, in December of 1961.  We had three children, Naomi, David and John, but divorced in 1967.  Needing to support my children, I went to work first at the Alaska Native Hospital, Public Health Service, later for BLM, and eventually as an in-court clerk for U.S. District Court in Anchorage.  I was able to travel to various locales in Alaska and participated in Naturalization Ceremonies, giving the Oath of Allegiance.  My memories include a trip to Nome and two wonderful trips to Adak including a stopover on Shemya at the time it was a top-secret base.   I remarried in 1972 to Ray Nelson who adopted my children.  In 1983 my son, David, was killed in a motorcycle accident and not long after I left Alaska and settled in Oregon.  I worked at Linn-Benton Community College in Linn County for a few years until my parents decided to leave Anchorage and move to Eugene in the summer of 1991. 

At that point I also moved to Eugene and went to work for Lane Community College where I was the Mathematics Coordinator for a number of years, retiring in 2005.  My Dad passed away not long after they moved to Eugene, but Mother was close by for the following thirteen years and we spent a lot of quality time together.  What a treasure those years are! 

I am married to Danny Czarnecki, who is in cable rail sales and is also a musician and photographer.  We have a number of furry children and still live in Eugene. Over the years I worked in various ways with the peace movement, and attended the first ever U.S.-Soviet Citizens Summit in Washington, DC in 1988.  What an adventure!  In attendance were 100 of the top Russian leaders in all fields, and 500 Americans who were mostly activists of some sort.  Ted Turner gave the keynote speech and it was there that I discovered Sister Cities.  In the early 1990’s I held offices with the Eugene Irkutsk Sister City Committee, which enabled me to go to Moscow, Russia in 1994.  During those years I also started a family-to-family pen pal program between Eugene and Irkutsk.

Since retiring, I have been able to indulge in other passions.  I attend ballet, modern dance and MIME classes 4 days a week, dabble in art, make family scrapbooks and art journals, have become the family archivist and genealogist, and joined the DAR.  I build dollhouses, love tattoos and sci-fi, garden, play with my puppies and kitties, and have fun with my wonderful husband!  And I am very grateful!  Life is Good!

Dec 5, 2011: Jana says: "I really encourage you all to share this site with others who grew up in Anchorage during the early years, and to post comments or stories. I've added a short criteria list for posts. I don't know how many words the comments section can handle, so we will just have to test it and make changes as necessary. If you have something you want to share, and it won't fit in the comments area, just e-mail it to me

Jana's Growing up Anchorage website

I've also added instructions on how to subscribe to this blog and I hope you all will! Let's make this a fun place to share memories!"

Jana continues her life's adventures below: