Happy 100th Birthday, Janice!

SAN ANGELO, TX — Janice Melone of San Angelo celebrated her 100th birthday on September 28.

Born in Boston as Janice McCourt and the eldest of eight children, Janice graduated from Emmanuel College in 1946. Like her mother, she has been a gifted musician since childhood and went on to study voice at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music. Singing on local radio and for civic groups, she was affectionately called "the poor man's Irene Farrell," a noted soprano of the Metropolitan Opera at the time. She also performed in various professional symphony choral groups in the Boston area.

It was through her love of music that she met her husband, Vincent Melone, a Boston wool trader who opened a wool scouring and combing plant in San Angelo in 1961. By 1971, he stopped commuting and moved the family permanently to San Angelo.

Settling in with their four children, aged two to 18, Janice joined her parish choir at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

"They needed altos, and since I could read music, young Fr. Nawarskas (choir director) asked if I'd mind switching from soprano. I did switch, and I developed my lower voice too!" she recalled.

When formal Mass music ended at the cathedral, she moved to the choir at Holy Angels Church, where she sang for decades. She also performed with the San Angelo Symphony Chorale through the mid- to late 1990s, before eventually stepping down due to hearing loss.

Remarkably, Janice drove her own car until the age of 95, without any prompting from her family.

Blessed with good health, she remains a devout Catholic, watching daily Mass at 7 a.m., praying the rosary, playing the piano, and walking a mile almost every day.

A lifelong reader of all genres, she also completes the daily New York Times crossword puzzle, even the Saturday edition—always in ink!

Her favorite saying? "The first hundred years are the hardest."