Janet Ann Regan Burghart, 77, of Rochester, passed away on Tuesday, July 15, at Springfield Memorial Hospital in Springfield, Illinois, surrounded by her family. She had been diagnosed in February with interstitial lung disease, which she fought until her last breath.
Jan embraced life with a passion, and she always looked for ways to celebrate and make each day fun, bright, and “dazzling.” She loved to travel and attend live theatrical performances, she decorated her house for nearly every holiday on the calendar, and she planned her outfit and accessories for special events weeks in advance. She was a loving mother to her three girls, a caring wife to her husband, Vic, an adoring “Nana” to her five grandchildren, a dedicated daughter and sister, an outstanding mentor to her dance students, a loyal friend, and an irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind star.
Jan was born on March 4, 1948, in Springfield, the youngest of four children of James and Johanna Regan. She discovered what would become her life’s passion as a preschooler, taking dance classes at the Mack Professional School of Dance, owned by Betty Jo and Joey Mack. At her first dance recital, she was so stage struck that she had to be pulled off the stage! Jan continued her dance training in ballet, jazz, and tap while attending Sacred Heart High School, where she graduated in 1966.
She studied on scholarship at the Stone and Cameron School of Ballet in Chicago before beginning her professional dance career touring the United States with the Lenore Sutton Dance Troupe.
Despite her love of dance, Jan yearned for even more adventure, which led to her becoming a flight attendant with Eastern Airlines. She was based out of LaGuardia Airport in New York City, where she lived with five other flight attendants in a tiny apartment. In the late 1960s, flight attendants could not be married, were put on a scale weekly to ensure they maintained a strict weight, and the airline determined their look and style. This resulted in Jan being forced to have her gorgeous thick, curly red hair cut into a sleek, asymmetrical bob at a Vidal Sassoon salon.
On a trip back to her hometown, through mutual friends, she met a pipefitter named Charles Victor Burghart. Despite their first date being at a laundromat, they fell in love, got engaged, and Jan left her career in the skies behind to move back to Springfield and get married in 1970.
While Vic often traveled for work, Jan stayed home and focused on raising their three daughters – Tara, Bridget, and Gretchen. After she enrolled in a weekly dance class for adults in the evenings, her passion for dance was reignited, and she started teaching children’s dance classes at the YMCA in downtown Springfield. Realizing how much she loved teaching, her husband built her a dance studio in 1982 in the basement of their home, and soon Jan’s Dance Studio had several evenings’ full of children taking ballet and tap, as well as several classes of ladies who took Jane Fonda-inspired exercise classes from Jan.
When that basement studio could no longer accommodate the demand, Jan rented a space behind the bowling alley in Rochester and produced her first spring recital in 1985. As she gained more students, she moved to several spaces over the following years. When her studiowas destroyed by the tornadoes that roared through Springfield in 2006, she moved to a building off Main Street in Chatham, where Jan’s Dance Studio still thrives today.
Just this past June, Jan’s Dance Studio celebrated the 40th anniversary of its very first recital, and it was designed as a tribute to “Miss Jan.” Over 40 years in business, Jan taught and inspired thousands of girls – and a few boys, too – not only how to dance but how to live lives of character and purpose. For many of its students, Jan’s Dance Studio provided a safe space and a respite from the drama of school, a stressful home situation, or just a place to have fun while working hard. Jan showed her students how to embrace life, appreciate the fine arts, take advantage of opportunities, and make the most of their abilities.
Part of Jan’s mission was to provide students a dance experience in a variety of environments in order to become well-rounded, confident individuals. She organized opportunities for her dancers that allowed them to perform and train across the country, including Walt Disney World, professional performing arts centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, aboard cruise ships, and at large conventions.
Among the Jan’s Dance Studio alumni who Jan taught are a Broadway performer (her daughter, Gretchen), a Los Angeles Laker Girl, Disney World cast members, cruise ship performers, and girls who were a part of dance teams at colleges including the University of Illinois, Butler University, Illinois State University, Millikin University, and St. Louis University, to name a few. A number of students went on to study dance at prestigious universities around the country; some have returned to JDS to teach or have opened their own successful dance studios. For many years, Jan was an active member of the Southern Association of Dance Masters (SADM), serving as its secretary and ballet chair.
When not at the studio, Jan most enjoyed spending time with her family, especially her three daughters, their husbands, and her beloved grandchildren, to whom she was their beautiful, energetic, and vivacious “Nana.” She took great pride in the brick ranch home she and Vic built in Rochester in the mid-1980s, and loved hosting her family there for cookouts, swimming parties, and holidays. She hosted her extended family’s Thanksgiving celebration every year for more than 50 years, and she made sure the house was decorated with plenty of turkeys, pilgrims, pumpkins, and fall leaves. In fact, there was hardly a holiday for which Jan did not have amazing seasonal decor.
Jan also loved to travel, and some of her most memorable trips included cruises to Bermuda and Grand Turk, a trip to Paris, and a vacation in Ireland where she got to see County Galway, where her maternal grandfather was born. Since her grandchildren came along, a favorite destination for the extended family was Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Jan and Vic especially liked to go on cruises together, where her favorite night was “formal night” and because he loved her, Vic would put on a suit and tie just to make her happy!
Jan took pride in her appearance, and she never left the house without looking like a million bucks. Her red hair was curled, makeup was on, perfume was applied, jewelry was jingling, and her clothes, shoes, and purse coordinated. She got her nails painted regularly, and made regular shopping trips to Von Maur department store in Decatur and Josephine’s Gift Shop in Godfrey, trips that were even better when she was accompanied by her best friend of 60 years, Patty Portwood Boyett.
Other things she loved included yogurt, buttermilk, and all things dairy (she would stress that it was genetic, since her dad had owned a dairy and milk delivery business), watching her soaps – “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and running errands in her red Cadillac while listening to Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Broadway tunes.
Jan’s family heritage was Irish, and she had the gift of gab. She told of how her dad drove her to school in his large dairy truck, and embarrassed, she would make him drop her off several blocks away. She remembered taking a train cross country with her parents to visit her older brother Jim in Los Angeles, where he treated them to prime seats at the Rose Parade in Pasadena. Years later on another trip to L.A., she was wowed when she pulled up at a red light next to Robert Redford in a convertible, and he lowered his sunglasses to wink at her.
Jan is survived by her husband of 55 years, Charles Victor Burghart, and daughters Tara Burghart (Daniel Janis); Bridget Armstrong (Kyle Armstrong); Gretchen Burghart-Bice (Michael Bice); grandchildren Charlie, Hannah, Brynna, Huxley, and Vander; her brother Tom Regan (Karen Regan), sister Mary Patricia Dougherty, sister-in-law Terri Miller (Chris Miller) and many nieces and nephews.
Instead of a formal visitation, a Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, July 20, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Prairie View Reception Center, 8865 Route 4, Chatham. Those attending are asked to wear something green (Jan’s favorite color) and be prepared to dance, tell stories, laugh and honor the memory of Jan’s energetic, joyful, infectious, fun personality and her zest for life. A funeral Mass will be held Monday, July 21, at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 524 E. Lawrence Ave., Springfield.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to construct a memorial garden at Jan’s Dance Studio, 16 Cottonwood Drive, Chatham, Illinois, 62629.
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