Jan Wallick

Things don’t always go as planned. You have to accept change.

Janice Sedlacek was born on a farm near Ord, Nebraska in November 1940, the second oldest of what was to become a family of eleven children. Jan attended country schools until the spring of 1952 when her father bought a farm in St. Paul.  This move gave Jan and her siblings the opportunity to attend a public grade school and high school. In 1955, Jan’s father was diagnosed with a serious asthmatic condition.  He struggled with the illness and doctors advised him that he would have to quit farming. They knew they would have to make a big decision that would change their lives. With the support of family members, he was offered a job in a lumber mill in Priest River, Idaho.

With some of the profits in selling the farm and most of the household furniture, Jan’s parents purchased a brand new 1956 Ford station wagon.  On June 4, 1956, squeezing in the entire family and pulling a covered trailer with personal belongings, the family left Nebraska heading for the Northwest.  They ate lunches made by their grandmother, and ate at roadside picnic tables with outdoor toilets. Motels were not an option, so they all slept in the car!!!! (This was the first time any of the kids had traveled out of the state of Nebraska!!!)  It took two full days to reach their destination. Soon, Jan’s parents found a house in Newport, Washington. Jan was 15 years old. It was difficult to leave her friends in Nebraska.  She identified herself as a farmer’s daughter and always wanted to go back “home”.

After graduating from high school in 1958, Jan returned to Nebraska hoping to establish a way of life that she thought she had left behind when moving to Washington.  But to her dismay, those two years made a lot of difference because the “friends” were going on with their lives, and she found she missed her family so much.  After one year, she returned to Newport where she worked, until, eventually, Jan attended Auerswald’s Accounting and Secretarial School in downtown Seattle to complete her vocational certificate.

Her first job was with John W. Graham’s Book Supply Co. On  New Year’s Eve of 1962, she met and fell in love with Fred Wallick.  After Fred finished his teaching degree, they were married August of 1964.  They moved to Cashmere where Fred started his teaching career and Jan started her career as an elementary school secretary until their first daughter was born. Jan stayed home to raise Amy and Marcy until 1976 when she became the Cashmere High School secretary.

During the years of raising her family and working, Jan was a seamstress, active in her church, an active member of the local Apple Valley Educational School Secretaries Association and the State and National Educational Secretaries Association.  During her membership and activities of the state association, Jan received the Washington State Christa McAuliffe Award. She donated her $25,000 award to create a student scholarship for those in need.

Jan was married to Fred Wallick for 48 years. He retired from teaching in 1994. He unexpectedly passed away in June 2012, leaving Jan alone for the first time in her life. Even during the pandemic, she finds ways to maintain her health and spirit by continuing her volunteer work with her community as well as walking, exercising, gardening and reading.