At about noon on Thursday May 30, 1946, Raymond O. (Ray) and Christina Mae Phillips (Mae) welcomed Jana Rae to Olney, IL and they loved their new daughter. Seventy-nine years later on Friday, June 6th, 2025, just a week after her birthday Jana glimpsed heaven. Her sojourn on earth ended while her husband Jerry and Daughter Janell held her peaceful soft warm hands; Jana reunited with her older sister Verna Stanfield who only in mid April arrived in heaven. Preceded by her sister and parents, Jana will be interred at Crest Haven Memorial Park, Claremont, IL. A celebration of life for Jana is being planned in Olney for later in 2025.

Jana Rae Quigg (née Phillips) grew up in Olney, IL, in a modest 1870s home with an uninsulated attic. The house yet stands. She often reminisced about winter nights spent huddled under blankets in the upstairs bedroom with her sister Sharon and younger brother Rick, sharing a bed keeping warm during the frigid, snowy months.

Jana was a trailblazer. In high school, with friends Carol Gerber and Marylyn Travers, Jana helped form the Mellodette Trio. Churches around the Olney area enjoyed their singing. They performed on Terre Haute TV10 and recorded an album. The first in her family to attend college, Jana graduated Olivet Nazarene University in 1969, as a teacher, and moved to Prince George’s County, Maryland. She devoted her life to education, teaching elementary school, high school, Sunday school, and later in the administration of the University of Maryland. Jana served in both the Robert H. Smith School of Business and in the A. James Clark School of Engineering. She last worked there in the Center for Transportation Technology Transfer.

Ruth, a college friend, introduced Jana to First Church of the Nazarene in Washington, DC, and she joined the choir. There, she saw and fell in love with an aloof U.S. Army Captain, Jerry Quigg. She famously told Ruth, "I can get him"! They soon married, settled in Maryland, and Jana taught until the birth of their daughter. Seven years later, the Quigg family welcomed a son, Jonathan. In two years, they moved to Germany. Driving a VW camper, they toured, and van camped in the European tradition. One long vacation trip took them to the Mediterranean and the islands of Elba and Corfu. They toured biblical sites such as Thessalonica, Rome, Athens, Corinth, and many many more. The experience deepened their Christian faith. After they returned to Maryland Jana was inspired to establish a living Nativity Play at the local church. Jana, taking a year, organized 17 committees, recruited 240 characters and obtained the loan of live animals. Every Christmas season the Live Nativity was produced on the church lawn. It featured six scenes spanning prophecy to Christ's birth. The three-hour long production had scene changes every thirty minutes. Yes, Jana, a trailblazer was an organizer, manager, mother, educator, lover, world traveler, singer, piano player, artist, gardener, dog lover, home maker, and most of all faithful devout Christian. The world, life, won't be the same without her; a soul departed and deeply missed.

Jana is survived by her spouse, Jerry of Chandler, AZ, daughter, Janell and husband Ken Coffman of Boerne, TX, son, Jonathan and wife Amanda Quigg of Falls Church, VA, sister Sharon K. Rice of Pilot, VA, and brother Raymond R. (Rick) and wife Debi Phillips of Olney, IL.

Memorials can be made to Mayo Clinic (https://Mayoclinic.org/life), designated for brain research.

Tribute to Jana from her family