Janet Louise Conlan
May 26, 1924-April 16, 2012
Menlo Park, California

Janet Louise Conlan (Kruse), a lifelong volunteer for cultural institutions, and enthusiastic supporter for local humanitarian causes, died peacefully on April 16, 2012, at age 87.

A resident of Atherton and Menlo Park since 1956, she was an advocate for conservative political causes and candidates, a world traveler, as well as an avid golfer and skier.

She was an active member of the Junior League of San Francisco and Palo Alto for many years.

Mrs. Conlan was born on the 26th of May 1924 in Davenport, a Mississippi River town in Iowa. It was there that her father, Walter Otto Kruse, was an architect, and her mother Clara Hass Kruse raised Janet and her two older brothers, John Walter Kruse and William Nicholas Kruse.

She graduated from St Katherine's School in Davenport and Bennett College in Millbrook, New York, where she studied to be a graphic designer.

In 1948 she arrived in San Francisco and started a career in advertising.

Her marriage in 1950 to Robert Daniel Conlan lasted until his death in March of 2007.

She is survived by her sons, Charles of Los Angeles, Daniel of San Francisco, her nieces Claudia Kruse, Karen Kruse, Maria Kruse, Carita Polin, Beth Kruse, Catherine Conlan, Elizabeth Conlan, and nephews Walter Kruse, Merrill Kruse, and Jack Kruse.

A memorial service will be held on Friday the 4th of May at 9:30 in the morning at St. Denis Catholic Church in Menlo Park.

The family requests that memorial donations be made in her memory to the San Francisco Symphony.