Janice Patricia Richards

Our wonderful mom, wife, sister, nana, aunt and friend, Janice Richards, died March 4, 2026, at home in Medford, surrounded by people who loved her.

She lived most of her life in Southern Oregon, working in home health care, raising two sons and making sure she was there to take care of everyone who needed her.

Jan was born Aug. 26, 1942, to Milton and Mary Budde, in Minneapolis, Minn., and had two brothers, Duke and Scott. In 1955, the family moved to Sunnyvale, Calif., where she met Johnnie Richards at a high school dance. He decided right there she was “the one,” and they got married on June 24, 1961.

They moved to San Jose and adopted two boys, Dennis Patrick in 1965 and Darrin Paul in 1968. Five years later, Jan insisted they follow the rest of the Richards family to Oregon, where the boys could grow up in a safer community. They lived briefly in Medford, before moving to a new home in the Applegate Valley. And that was fine until the boys were in high school, and Johnnie and Jan were making too many trips to school and sports practices, so they moved back to Medford.

Once the boys were raised, Jan got a degree in home health nursing at Rogue Community College and worked with families dealing with cancer. She also worked at the Jacksonville Drug Store and became the person who was always in the waiting room for any family member in the hospital.

She was also the aunt who you relied on to host wedding and baby showers, and to show up at family picnics with a huge bowl of her famous potato salad. She loved to paint and spend time with little kids. The family knew she was always there “for anyone and everyone.”

In turn, during her long illness, her family was there for her. She will be missed by her husband Johnnie; sons Dennis (Tracy) in Medford and Darrin (Michelle) in Portland; granddaughters Claire in Portland and Madison in Medford; great-grand-daughter Harper; brother Duke (Rosemary) in Sunnyvale; brother and sisters–in-law, Betty Winningham and Tommy (Patti) Richards, both of Central Point, and Marie Martin of Talent, and many, many nieces and nephews.