Janice Booth To Be Honored As The Green City 4th Of July Parade Marshal
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“You won’t meet a sweeter or nicer person than Janice Booth”. That’s the resounding sentiment throughout Green City from the news that Mrs. Janice Booth will be honored as the 2021 Parade Marshall for the Green City 4th of July Celebration hosted by the Green City Chamber of Commerce.
At nearly 90 years old, Janice smiled big and said, “I’ve lived here and been a part of this community my entire life. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I feel like I’ve been the lucky one.”
Born to Everett and Reva Guy, Janice joined her family in Sioux Falls, SD in 1931 where her father worked for the John Morrell Company to earn money for his family and farm. The family moved back to Green City before Janice’s first birthday and she’s spent her life in the Green City area.
As a child, Janice’s family farmed about 6 miles north of Green City, and she fondly remembers the Saturday trips to Green City when it seemed the entire countryside traveled to town. “Everyone came to town and we spent all day on the square visiting, doing our shopping and having picnics. We usually went home well after dark and the horses found the way back to the house.” The 4th of July was a big holiday to celebrate. Ice-cream, sodas, and candy were all only 5 cents, and each of the children in the Guy family got a whole quarter to spend as they wished. “It was so hard to decide what to buy,” Janice laughed.
She remembers well the days when the depot was an active center of the city, and chuckled to remember a trip her whole family took to Kansas City to visit their grandmother. Janice shared that the conductor was chatting with guests in the car as he punched tickets. When he stopped at their seats he asked about the carefully packaged lunches, and commented that it looked so delicious he’d have to come back at lunchtime. Janice remembers bursting in to tears and being scared for the rest of the trip that the conductor was going to come back and eat her lunch.
Janice attended country school for her first eight years of schooling at 3 different schools north of Green City, and then came to Green City to the new High School to finish her education. She and her siblings all worked on the farm and in the garden alongside their parents. After the tragic death of her brother, she became the one her father often relied on for farm work and he taught her how to do much of the work that was previously reserved for the boys.
Janice married Eugene Dunlap and celebrated the birth of two boys, Dennis and Douglas. Janice stayed home with her boys until they started school and then she got her first job away from the farm. And, she’s been working ever since.
Her first position was with Wayne and Ethel Bennet at their turkey farm. From there she went to the Green City Sale Barn Café working for Avalee Caldwell, and later for Ellie Kincannon. Janice spent most of her life working in restaurants in Green City including 4 restaurants on the square, a few years in the school cafeteria with Barbara Stallings, and spent 10 years working for the Kent family at Kent Family Funeral Home.
Janice has been a lifelong member of the Green City First Baptist Church volunteering her time over the years for vacation bible schools, meals and services. For years she could be relied upon to drive folks for doctors and dentist appointments, and was always available to lend a helping hand. Even today, she’s picking up some shifts at the sale barn to help keep the restaurant going as Ellie Kincannon has undergone her chemo treatments. Janice has two children, three step-children Patricia Gooch, D.L. Booth, and Joan Lynch, 13 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.
Janice currently serves on the Green City Housing Board, is a part of the Green City Community Betterment committee, and the card party group that meets weekly at Pete’s Place for lunch and a few hands. In 2005 she was the Green City Quasquicentennial Queen, and she will wear her crown for the parade this year on July 4.
The Green City Chamber of Commerce is excited to host this year’s 4th of July celebration on Sunday July 4. Everyone is invited for the festivities starting with the Lady Lion’s Pancake breakfast and the Community Church service at 9:30am on the square. The parade will step off at 11:30 and follow its usual route from the school to the square. Activities throughout the afternoon will keep everyone entertained on the square and the evening will feature music from the band Boot Cut, and the annual fireworks display at dark
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