Janet Rosalie Kraen-Mackler

Janet Rosalie (Kraen) Mackler 1939 – 2017

A funeral Mass at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Casper will be said for Janet (Kraen) Mackler on Saturday, June 3rd at 1pm. Janet died of kidney failure from her long-time battle with lupus on Saturday, May 27th at the home of her son.

Janet Mackler was born on September 30, 1939 in Buffalo, Wyoming, the first daughter of Herman and Virginia (Bates) Kraen. She lived in Buffalo until her family relocated to Casper in 1952. She attended St. Anthony's School in 7th and 8th grades, where she met many life-long friends. Janet graduated from Natrona County High School in 1957. Shortly after graduation she enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas and at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C. While in the Air Force she met and married Donald Karsky, and their son, Donnie was born in 1959.

Divorced in 1960, Janet moved back to Casper with her son, and entered the nursing program at Casper College in the fall of 1960. She was the first woman member of the veterans' group, the 5-50 Club at the college, and the president of the Student Nurse Association of Casper College. She graduated in 1962 and got her three-year nursing certificate soon after.

She married Joe Goodman in 1964 and they had two more children, Michael and Patrick. They lived for several years in Casper, where Janet worked at Natrona County Memorial Hospital and as an office nurse for Dr. Louis Roussalis, M.D.

In 1984, the Goodman family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Janet worked for many years on the renal floor of Good Samaritan Hospital. She was named "Nurse of the Year" in the late 1980s. Her husband, Joe, passed away in 1992, and Janet married Edward Mackler in Phoenix in 1996. In 2008, Ed and Janet moved back to Wyoming and settled in Glenrock.

Janet was a long-time collector of dolls, angels and sugar bowls, and was an avid reader of mysteries, especially of Wyoming writers, C.J. Box and Craig Johnson.

She is survived by her husband, Ed, and three sons: Donald Goodman (Mary) of Casper, Michael Goodman (Debbie), of Athens, Wisconsin, and Patrick Goodman (Katie) of Phoenix, Arizona, and six grand-children: Matthew, Luke, Joey, Sam, Hannah, and Andrew and five sisters: Joan Anderson (Tom), Judy Kraen, Jolyn Wynn (George), Jerri Harris (John), and Jamie Bodyfelt (Larry), and many nieces and nephews, and step-son, Joe Mackler.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Herman and Virginia Kraen, and her second husband, Joseph Goodman.

Recitation of the rosary will be at Newcomer's Funeral Home on Friday, June 2nd at 7pm with viewing from 5 to 7 pm. Private inurnment at the Oregon Trail Veterans' Cemetery in Evansville will happen in August.

In lieu of flowers, memorials to Casper College Foundation, 125 College Drive, Casper, WY 82601 designated for the Kraen Family Scholarship (in memo line on checks), or to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105, would be equally appreciated.

If attending the service, it was Janet's wish that everyone wear colorful clothing in order to send her off "with joy."

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