Notes for Janet Sophie KASNER

Thurtell and Related Families Thurtell and Related Families

Notes for Janet Sophie KASNER

Sources: Birth certificate, marriage certificates, divorce papers, letters, and memories of daughter, Susan Persia Thurtell Miller.

Janet Kasner Thurtell was known as Sophie until she finished high school. She and her sister, Ann Kasner Cortes, had known only Polish, not English, when they started first grade. They quickly learned English and made sure their younger brother and sister knew English before starting school. Janet took great pride in speaking, reading, writing, and spelling English perfectly with no trace of an accent. She had studied Polish reading and writing as well as Polish history in high school and never completely forgot her Polish.

After their father died suddenly of a heart attack, Janet and Ann Kasner moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Washington, DC, where they began working for the federal government and sending money home to their mother and younger siblings. Janet worked second jobs wrapping packages in a department store, stuffing envelopes at the Post Office, and even dancing professionally at the Russian Troika, using the folk dancing she had learned as a child. She attended college classes at night and worked her way up from working as a stenographer, using her high school shorthand and typing, to being a GS-10 claims adjudicator with the U.S. General Accounting Office, Washington, DC, before quitting work in late 1950 or early 1951. She was also an excellent typist, able to type 85 words per minute with 12 legible copies on a manual typewriter.

She and her husband moved to Denver, Colorado, in early 1951. They both remained in that area the rest of their lives. They lived at 1794 Ivy, Denver, Colorado, from 1951 until spring 1954. They then lived on South Knox Court, Denver, Colorado, during the summer of 1954. They began living at 884 South Vallejo Street, Denver, Colorado 80223, on September 1, 1954. In about 1971 they moved to 12585 West Alameda Drive, Lakewood, Colorado 80228, where they lived the rest of their lives.

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