Memorial services will be held at 4:30 P.M. on Thursday, December 14, 2006 at the First Presbyterian Church of Canyon with The Rev. Dr. Don McDonald officiating. Janet Musselman Blasdel, 91, died at 1:35 P.M. Monday, December 4, 2006, of respiratory failure. She was holding the hands of two of her children at the time of her death. She was born Janet Leila Musselman in Quincy, Illinois on November 20, 1915 to parents Virgil George and Leila Weilepp Musselman. Janet spent her early years in Quincy. She attended Quincy"s Gem City Business College that her grandfather, DeLafayette Musselman, founded in 1870 and that her father helped manage. She pursued a pre-medical curriculum at the University of Iowa until the Great Depression intervened and she had to drop out so her brother could go to college. Janet became a career girl before it was fashionable for young girls to do so. She was first hired by Columbia University where she plied her secretarial skills for a year while living at the YWCA with other young women including the singer Marion Anderson. After that, she went to Chicago as secretary to the Director of the Courier Nurse Service of the Santa Fe Railroad. She was so efficient at this job that she quickly took over many of the director"s duties and got to travel all over the West via Santa Fe railway system. It was convenient that the Santa Fe had a stop in Amarillo. In 1942, she was introduced by a mutual friend, Ruth Early, to a young businessman from Amarillo by the name of L. Sherwood Blasdel. After many letters exchanged hands between the two, they were married on November 27, 1942. It was convenient that the Santa Fe had a stop in Amarillo. Janet became a devoted ranch wife and mother. She had her first opportunity to develop her creative skills by living on a remote ranch and dairy operation in Wheeler County. They lived in a one bedroom house with no running water or indoor plumbing, cooked in a wood burning stove and had one small generator that gave an hour of power a day. The rest was up to her to figure out, but somehow she learned to cook gourmet meals in this primitive set-up despite the fact that the oven temperature was never reliable. They later moved to a small ranch on the outskirts of Canyon where life was a little more civilized. They raised four children while living in this house. Janet was noted for her cooking prowess and shared her knowledge and cooking secrets with many people, especially her angel food cake and bread recipes. She could even make a perfect angel food cake in an oven with no temperature control. She perfected gourmet frozen meals for her family long before this idea became popular. She was an enthusiastic mentor for many aspiring cooks over her long and productive life. Janet was a lifelong student of art and even went to Mexico for a summer in the mid-fifties to study at a distinguished art school there. She donated her time teaching painting for many years at the Amarillo Senior Citizen"s Center with her colleague Emily Upshaw. Along with other church members, she helped fabricate the dossal (backdrop hanging behind the altar) for the First Presbyterian Church in Canyon. She was a respected panhandle artist and many friends and family are privileged to fall asleep at night gazing up at one of her beautiful paintings. Janet shared her love and life freely. If ever there were a person in need, she would put her own life aside and rush to the aid of that person. She taught her own family to be very self-reliant so she could help these others in distress (her family just ate the frozen meals). She championed the underdog to the end. Even from her wheelchair in her nursing home she was always concerned about her fellow residents who may have needed extra help from the staff, and she was quick to tell the staff that someone needed their help. She was generous to a fault with both her time and resources. She was an amazing, stro