Janine Jones was inducted as a Unity Santa Fe Treasure on Sunday, August 13, 2017. The following is the biography published on that date.
The dictionary defines a visionary as a person with imagination, wisdom and original ideas about what the future could be like. Inspired, imaginative, and creative are words that define Janine Jones. I would add fearless!
Janine was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Her family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when she was three months old. At age 14, her life took a turn when her father passed away. Then just four months later, her mother passed away also. She went to live with an aunt and uncle until, in 1960, her father's secretary and close family member, Mildred, agreed to become her guardian. She provided Janine with a loving and happy life. She passed away three months short of her 100th birthday.
Janine first rose through the ranks in banking. She married and she and her husband bought a hotel, restaurant and bar in Socorro. After their divorce, she opened a western clothing store. She also became a project installation coordinator for the construction of Socorro's perlite processing and shipping facility. She would go on to manage hotels in Yellowstone National Park for seven years and happened to be the park's last woman 4-horse hitch driver!
Janine moved back to Albuquerque and worked for Phillips, a computer chip manufacturer, for two years. She then accepted a job as a project liaison and properties manager for a commercial contractor doing on-site work, design modifications, renovating and supervising projects, such as apartment complexes, office buildings, restaurants, hotels and a nightclub in Texas and New Mexico.
Janine bought, remodeled and restored an historic adobe in Bernalillo to be used as a business location. She opened an antique store and later, with a partner, opened a natural fiber clothing store. Living in Placitas, she bought and developed land, building seven custom homes. During construction, she sold a refrigerator to a doctor who was in Placitas on sabbatical for a year. She became friends with her and her family. The doctor decided to retire and returned to New Mexico from Virginia, renting Janine's guest house. The doctor's daughter and her husbank moved back to the USA from Costa Rica, where they had attended a Unity Church. The daughter asked Janine to go with her to explore Unity Santa Fe. That was 16 years ago and Janine has been attending Sunday service ever since.
Janine served as Vice President of the Board of Trustees for five years. She is the Facilities Ministry Team Leader and the Big Screen Ministry Team Leader, creating the Song Slide Library. She coordinated the team for floor tile work after completion of the church addition. Janine built walls, steps and the planter in the meditation garden and negotiated the sale of the lot bequeathed to Unity by Helen Lane, which is the current location of the medicine wheel. She organizes the Unity Directory every year and has participated in the two-year Spiritual Mastery Program. She credits Eric Butterworth's Power of Now as a big influence on her Unity spiritual path.