Kenneth Poe Funeral Services

July 14, 2023

CHARLOTTE – Jan Thompson, 89, died Friday, July 14, 2023, peacefully at home with her son and daughter by her side.  Her remarkable life and multiple careers are a testament to the changes and expanded opportunities women have seen during the 20th and 21st centuries. 

Born Janet Pauline Sumner on September 20, 1933, to Josie Duncan and Howard Sumner, Jan grew up in the small town of Mount Airy, NC.  Her childhood was filled with love, security and the values of hard work, family, and churchgoing, which would last her lifetime.  She described a simple life of neighborhood friends, visits with family, walks to the nearby grocery for a loaf of bread and hours spent deciding which piece of candy to buy.  World War II meant gas and food rationing, victory gardens, canning vegetables, war stamps and bonds, air raid/blackout practices, and an uncle killed in France.  Her grandparents, she said, never overcame their grief. 

Her mother was a teacher and her father a police officer who became police chief.  She recalled occasional special days when she would walk home for lunch and her father would take her back to school in his police car. 

After graduating from Mount Airy High School, Jan graduated from Guilford College in 1954 with a degree in psychology. Within a year, she moved to Charlotte and began work as a stenographer for the FBI, where she was required to wear white gloves each day. 

In 1956, she married James Rudolph “Rudy” Thompson Jr., a Charlotte native.  His interest in community theater drew Jan into the city’s nascent artistic community.  Her association with talented actors in the Charlotte community, as well as a mistaken (in her opinion) editorial about the lack of them, led her to establish the Jan Thompson Talent Agency in 1964.  For the next 20 years, she represented actors, performers and models for print, television, and radio advertising, as well as films and fashion modeling.

When founding her business, Jan discovered that banks would not lend her - a female entrepreneur – the necessary capital, without a male co-signer.  Rather than be dependent on her husband, she got her father to co-sign the loan.  That experience as one of the first female business owners in Charlotte, as well as one of the first female members of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, opened her eyes to the disparity in opportunities for women.

She joined, and eventually chaired, the Charlotte Women’s Political Caucus.  She was passionate about equal rights for women, advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment (still not ratified), persistently demanded that women be included on public boards and commissions, sought legal protections for domestic violence victims, and worked to help women get elected to public office. 

In 1984, she sold her talent agency – which still exists as JTA Inc.– and took a position with Jefferson Pilot Corp. (WBTV), producing commercials.  In 1988, Jan and a longtime colleague formed a small advertising and marketing firm, “The Creative Department.”   

When Mecklenburg County officials began planning for a new jail, they appointed Jan to the Jail Study Committee.  She eventually chaired the Mecklenburg County Jail Planning Committee, which led to her last, and possibly most rewarding, career.  At age 63, she was hired as director of inmate programs for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.  Her philosophy: “The majority of these inmates will come back to this community.  They can come back worse. They can come back the same.  Or they can come back better.  You choose.”  Jan chose to help inmates improve their lives by creating programs such as substance abuse treatment, parenting classes, domestic violence education, vocational education, and high school and GED classes for youthful offenders. 

Among many other civic positions, Jan chaired the Charlotte Civil Service Board, and served on the boards of the Children’s Home Society of NC, the Charlotte Society of Communicating Arts (first female president), and the Charlotte Ad Club, which honored her with their Silver Medal Award. She also served many years on the N.C. Public Radio Advisory Committee and the NC Board of Public Telecommunications Commissioners. 

Jan was awarded the Jonnie H. McLeod Award for her work in substance abuse prevention and treatment.  She was also honored with the Charles Dunn Memorial Award for her work on behalf of children and youth of North Carolina.  The Mecklenburg County Bar Association presented her with their Liberty Bell Award. She was a member of the Charlotte Rotary Club and Covenant Presbyterian Church. 

Jan was a gracious hostess, and her longtime home on the edge of Myers Park saw hundreds of guests over the years at her large Christmas parties with her famous – and potent – eggnog and Southern Comfort punch, her extended Friendsgiving dinners, and a regular stream of drop-ins who might be treated to lemon meringue pies, cheese biscuits, sausage balls or vegetable sandwiches. 

Those who knew her treasured her wicked sense of humor and rollicking laugh, her generosity, and her wisdom and kind advice about weathering difficult times, navigating Charlotte politics, or the simple pleasures of good cooking, gardening and watching birds flock to her feeders. Even in her last years, as her health declined, she continued her Christmas tradition of giving dozens of paper white narcissus bulbs to friends. 

Notwithstanding her many accomplishments, she considered her greatest achievement to be her children: Vista Thompson of Phoenix and Dan Thompson (Donna) of Matthews, NC. She was devoted to her grandchildren Duncan Brown (Stephanie) of Costa Mesa, CA; Carter Brown (Veru) of Prague, Czechia; Alyssa Coe (Cory) of Dobson, NC; and Kristen Thompson of Salisbury, but was loved by many others as “Grandma Jan.”  Also surviving are her six great-grandchildren.  She was predeceased by her brother, Bill Sumner, Jr. 

Memorial services for Jan will be held at 1:00 PM on Thursday July 20, 2023, at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, NC.  

Although she loved flowers, Jan - ever practical - asked that memorial contributions be made to the Council for Children’s Rights, Attn: Amy Vavra, 601 East Fifth Street, Suite 510, Charlotte, NC 28202. (https://www.cfcrights.org/donate/).

Arrangements are in the care of Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service, 1321 Berkeley Ave., Charlotte, NC 28204; (704) 641-7606. Online condolences may be shared at www.kennethpoeservices.com.