Harry and Ann Janzen


Ann Perry grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her only brother was killed during World War II. After graduation from Queens College in 1947 she taught one year, then spent two years with the Red Cross on military bases. Harry, from an Oklahoma farm, is a musician, with master’s degrees in voice and sacred music. They met while both were studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Ann’s aim was to go to Alaska as a missionary. He needed Christian education courses to earn his degree in sacred music. Ann and Harry were married in 1956. When Harry remarked, “She married me and gave up everything,” Ann’s reply was, “I married you and gained everything!”

Harry was Director of Music in a fast-growing church for five years in Wichita, Kansas, where their three children were born. His next church position took them to Clarksburg, West Virginia. In 1969 she became a Church and Community Worker with appointments in West Virginia, then Lenoir, North Carolina and Hinton Rural Life Center, Hayesville, North Carolina, when she became a deaconess. There was also a brief stint on a terminated Indian reservation in Oregon.
During these appointments Harry was teaching music in community colleges, working in vocational rehabilitation, and otherwise involved in musical programs in each place. While Ann was on study leave to earn a master’s in Public Administration, he became a “house husband.” She tried a job in state government, which she admits was a learning
experience --”but not a happy one.”

Ann’s desire to go to Alaska was realized when they went to Sitka for an Elderhostel--and stayed for fifteen years, the first two at Sheldon Jackson College as a volunteer. Harry organized the large “Christian Choral Festival” in Sitka, involving both church and non-church people. When they left after fifteen years, this group continued as the “Harry Janzen Festival Choir.” Back in the “lower 48" Ann was Mission Interpreter in the Western Jurisdiction for two years before retiring. Then it was back to Alaska as a volunteer to become a “United Methodist presence” in Unalaska. At Unalaska they found persons hungry for a religious experience. She got to preach, which is one of her favorite activities. They left a congregation of forty-five people, ready for a fulltime pastor to be appointed. Harry was very ill when they left Unalaska. He spent six weeks in an Anchorage hospital, then two months in a nursing home. They moved to Palmer (near Anchorage and medical facilities) where Ann pastored the “Palmer United Methodist Fellowship” until they moved back to Sitka as retirees.

Note: Harry W. Janzen has passed away, since this article was written. Click on his name to go to the "In Memoriam" page.

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