Jane Yantis

Jane Elaine Yantis was born to William and Agnes Harkrider in Center, Texas. She was raised by her Aunt Ruby and Uncle Jack Parker due to the illness and death of her father. She was one of two female law students at the University of Texas in 1940 before marrying Carl Breed Yantis on October 25, 1941. She joined Carl in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during World War II.

After the war, they moved to Billings, Montana where their five daughters, Carolyn, Deborah, Priscilla, Victoria, and Rebecca, were born. The family moved to Houston, Texas in 1960 when Exxon absorbed Carter Oil Company and moved its headquarters to Houston, Texas.

Jane was a very creative and original rebel, sewing her daughters’ clothes and encouraging them in dance and music.  She and Carl completed the Coast Guard Power Squadron Course and enjoyed boating.

After Carl’s retirement, they moved to Nye, Montana where they enjoyed four short years before Carl’s death in 1982. Jane loved living in Montana, but was forced, due to declining health, to move to Huntsville, Alabama near her oldest daughter. She rallied, got into shape, joined AAUW, and moved into an independent living facility there. In 2017 she moved to Kalispell, Montana to be near her middle daughter. She said she moved because she wanted to die in Montana.

Jane is survived by five daughters, nine grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren. She is predeceased by her husband Carl Breed Yantis, her brothers Bill and Ben Harkrider, granddaughter Chelsea Chenault, and grandson Austin Lord.

Her body has been donated to science and no services are planned at this time. Memorials can be made in her honor to an endowed scholarship for natural science at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana.