
So, I have been doing my best to get started. But, where do you start to tell a person's story that is larger than life? And how do you make it appealing for young children? I decided that it needed to be told from a child's perspective. Then it dawned on me that I was that child. Janie had me singing on her shows from the tender age of 4. I just happened to be around to observe many of the important events of her life. I even lived with her through my college years and got to hear her stories over and over. But which stories do I include?
Janie loved playing the piano and singing and dancing. Grandma Lora used Janie's natural gifts to help her direct shows with the children in town. Grandma had the vision, and young Janie provided the model for the children to follow. Janie grew up knowing that she had God-given talents. Her parents made sure she knew that "where much is given, much is expected." She lived her life by that motto and always said that the best way to show gratitude for God's gifts was to magnify them.

Janie would have been happy continuing on in this show business career, but she felt the need to serve a mission for the LDS Church (in Wales). Later she hoped to rejoin the Ike Carpenter Band as she was invited to do, but accepted a position at BYU instead. While at Brigham Young University, she developed the talents of the students in the Program Bureau.
She used her contacts in the US Defense Department to sponsor the BYU student show groups that toured all over the world. Her groups were the first college groups to go to the Far East and China, India, Russia, Africa, South America, and the Holy Land besides the many European and State-side destinations already open to show groups. In her time at BYU, Janie took tours to every Continent (excluding Antarctica) and nearly every country in the world. Janie's special gifts were to help others develop their talents. She influenced many people for good and even launched many careers.

My sister kindly suggested that the title of the story book should be "The Girl from No Where Who Went Everywhere" because she really had!