Obituary for Dr. Janice Stratton
Ida Janice Deas Stratton, M.D. (86), of Durham, NC, passed away at home surrounded by her family on March 26, 2022 after an extended illness. She is survived by her daughters Sara Stratton (Ulrich Hartmond) and Alice Stratton (Michael Durkin) and grandchildren Natalie and Isabelle Hartmond and Nicholas and Erin Durkin.
Janice was born on January 20, 1936 in Birmingham, AL, the daughter of Richard and Ida Deas and the younger sister to Dick and Jack. In 1951, the family moved to Oxford, OH, where she graduated from McGuffey High School in 1953. She studied zoology and graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 1957, and despite being told by her college professor that she was not good at science, she went on to graduate from Tulane Medical School in 1961, one of 5 women in her class. She did her pediatric internship at Cincinnati General Hospital and completed her residency at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA and at Good Samaritan Hospital, Cincinnati OH.
In Cincinnati, she met fellow medical resident John Perley Stratton (d. 2004) in 1961 whom she married in July 1963. The newlyweds honeymooned in Italy, on their way to Kaimosi, Kenya, where they both worked at Friends Hospital, as part of John’s alternative to military service. During three years in Kaimosi, they made many lifelong friends while marveling at the excitement and challenges of living in a newly independent nation; they even met the new President Jomo Kenyatta during their first week! They traveled East Africa in their sea green VW Beetle as their schedules allowed, and particularly enjoyed seeing the wildlife and scenery while on safari, including climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1965, Janice in her saddle oxfords.
Their daughter Sara Janice was born in Kaimosi in 1965, and they returned to Cincinnati six months later after traveling home through Egypt to Greece and across Western Europe. Their second daughter Alice Louise was born in 1969 in Cincinnati and later that year they moved to Durham, NC. Their son Richard John was born in 1971 in Durham NC; Richard (“Richie”) passed away in 1973.
Janice loved her work as a pediatrician and enjoyed working with children and parents throughout her career, including at Lincoln Community Health Center, and the Developmental Evaluation Centers at Duke Medical Center and in Fayetteville and Greensboro, NC. She worked part-time when her children were young, and in 1981 she transitioned to full-time at Durham County Health Department, where she became more directly involved in public health, including addressing the emerging health issues of HIV/AIDS and TB. In the mid-nineties she served as the Interim County Health Director, and retired in 2001 from her position as the Durham County Medical Director.
Growing up in the Deep South, Janice witnessed firsthand the cruelties of racial and social injustices. She shadowed her physician grandfather as he cared for both blacks and whites in rural Alabama, and she carried forth the belief that all people deserved fair and just treatment. Through her public health career, she helped improve the lives and conditions of many underserved and marginalized populations in Kenya, Ohio, Georgia, and North Carolina. Janice supported causes that also sought to address social, environmental, and health injustices, and could have easily been a member of the "raging grannies" club as she strove to fight radical ideas and non-science based beliefs and actions.
Outside of work, Janice was an avid gardener and traveler. She and John established large and prolific vegetable and flower gardens and kept beehives for many years. Janice was happy spending hours outside all year round working in the gardens, and then spent more hours in the kitchen canning and preserving the harvest. She shared this love of the outdoors through volunteer work at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the North Carolina Botanical Gardens by working in the gardens, training as a Master Gardener and serving as a tour guide for school groups. Janice was also an avid sewer, knitter, reader and music lover.
Janice always loved to travel. In her youth, she drove across the country with her mother and brothers, and did a bike tour of Europe while in college. When her children were young, the family regularly hiked and camped throughout North Carolina; in later years Janice and John enjoyed hiking, birding and biking trips across the US. She and John visited many countries in South and Central America, the Middle East and Scandinavia; after John’s death she continued to travel with friends. As a retirement gift to herself, Janice learned to scuba dive, and then had many fabulous diving adventures in the Caribbean. Closer to home, Janice loved to get in her car and drive! She toured the states east of the Mississippi to visit friends and family, and introduced her grandchildren to her Southern roots, all the time collecting as many details as possible for her genealogy research, the big passion of her last decade.
The importance of family was paramount throughout Janice’s life. Growing up, she looked up to her big brothers and enjoyed a large circle of cousins, with whom she maintained close connections through adulthood. Oma Janice has been a constant presence in the lives of her four grandchildren, sharing her passions for nature, art, history, movies and travel. She was a regular presence at school and sports events in Hillsborough, NC and made as many trips as she could to Westport, CT for soccer games, birthday parties, and afternoons at the beach.
Janice’s family greatly appreciates the staff at Transitions LifeCare Hospice and Glorious Life Home Care Services for their attentive care and compassion during her illness. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Friends Committee on National Legislation (www.fcnl.org) or the North Carolina Botanical Garden (ncbg.unc.edu).
A service will be held on April 4, 2022 at 11 am at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, NC, with a reception following.
Janice was born on January 20, 1936 in Birmingham, AL, the daughter of Richard and Ida Deas and the younger sister to Dick and Jack. In 1951, the family moved to Oxford, OH, where she graduated from McGuffey High School in 1953. She studied zoology and graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 1957, and despite being told by her college professor that she was not good at science, she went on to graduate from Tulane Medical School in 1961, one of 5 women in her class. She did her pediatric internship at Cincinnati General Hospital and completed her residency at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA and at Good Samaritan Hospital, Cincinnati OH.
In Cincinnati, she met fellow medical resident John Perley Stratton (d. 2004) in 1961 whom she married in July 1963. The newlyweds honeymooned in Italy, on their way to Kaimosi, Kenya, where they both worked at Friends Hospital, as part of John’s alternative to military service. During three years in Kaimosi, they made many lifelong friends while marveling at the excitement and challenges of living in a newly independent nation; they even met the new President Jomo Kenyatta during their first week! They traveled East Africa in their sea green VW Beetle as their schedules allowed, and particularly enjoyed seeing the wildlife and scenery while on safari, including climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1965, Janice in her saddle oxfords.
Their daughter Sara Janice was born in Kaimosi in 1965, and they returned to Cincinnati six months later after traveling home through Egypt to Greece and across Western Europe. Their second daughter Alice Louise was born in 1969 in Cincinnati and later that year they moved to Durham, NC. Their son Richard John was born in 1971 in Durham NC; Richard (“Richie”) passed away in 1973.
Janice loved her work as a pediatrician and enjoyed working with children and parents throughout her career, including at Lincoln Community Health Center, and the Developmental Evaluation Centers at Duke Medical Center and in Fayetteville and Greensboro, NC. She worked part-time when her children were young, and in 1981 she transitioned to full-time at Durham County Health Department, where she became more directly involved in public health, including addressing the emerging health issues of HIV/AIDS and TB. In the mid-nineties she served as the Interim County Health Director, and retired in 2001 from her position as the Durham County Medical Director.
Growing up in the Deep South, Janice witnessed firsthand the cruelties of racial and social injustices. She shadowed her physician grandfather as he cared for both blacks and whites in rural Alabama, and she carried forth the belief that all people deserved fair and just treatment. Through her public health career, she helped improve the lives and conditions of many underserved and marginalized populations in Kenya, Ohio, Georgia, and North Carolina. Janice supported causes that also sought to address social, environmental, and health injustices, and could have easily been a member of the "raging grannies" club as she strove to fight radical ideas and non-science based beliefs and actions.
Outside of work, Janice was an avid gardener and traveler. She and John established large and prolific vegetable and flower gardens and kept beehives for many years. Janice was happy spending hours outside all year round working in the gardens, and then spent more hours in the kitchen canning and preserving the harvest. She shared this love of the outdoors through volunteer work at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the North Carolina Botanical Gardens by working in the gardens, training as a Master Gardener and serving as a tour guide for school groups. Janice was also an avid sewer, knitter, reader and music lover.
Janice always loved to travel. In her youth, she drove across the country with her mother and brothers, and did a bike tour of Europe while in college. When her children were young, the family regularly hiked and camped throughout North Carolina; in later years Janice and John enjoyed hiking, birding and biking trips across the US. She and John visited many countries in South and Central America, the Middle East and Scandinavia; after John’s death she continued to travel with friends. As a retirement gift to herself, Janice learned to scuba dive, and then had many fabulous diving adventures in the Caribbean. Closer to home, Janice loved to get in her car and drive! She toured the states east of the Mississippi to visit friends and family, and introduced her grandchildren to her Southern roots, all the time collecting as many details as possible for her genealogy research, the big passion of her last decade.
The importance of family was paramount throughout Janice’s life. Growing up, she looked up to her big brothers and enjoyed a large circle of cousins, with whom she maintained close connections through adulthood. Oma Janice has been a constant presence in the lives of her four grandchildren, sharing her passions for nature, art, history, movies and travel. She was a regular presence at school and sports events in Hillsborough, NC and made as many trips as she could to Westport, CT for soccer games, birthday parties, and afternoons at the beach.
Janice’s family greatly appreciates the staff at Transitions LifeCare Hospice and Glorious Life Home Care Services for their attentive care and compassion during her illness. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Friends Committee on National Legislation (www.fcnl.org) or the North Carolina Botanical Garden (ncbg.unc.edu).
A service will be held on April 4, 2022 at 11 am at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, NC, with a reception following.