Janine Deane Pierson

Janine Deane Pierson passed away peacefully from complications from Lupus, on December 26, 2024, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, surrounded by loving friends and family. She was preceded in death by her parents, Arthur and Maxine Pierson, and is survived by her brother, Dr. Jay A. Pierson.

Born in Battle Creek, Michigan, Janine attended the Battle Creek public school system and graduated from Battle Creek Central High School in 1974. She was a member of the swimming team and a proud participant in the A Cappella Choir and was part of the historic 1973 choir trip to Romania. She also had a love of swimming and fishing, having spent many summers growing up at Mill Lake with her family.

Janine had a lifelong passion for music, from her early years singing with Miss Dooley’s Battle Creek All City Elementary Choir while at Level Park Elementary, to the Northwestern Junior High Choraliers, to the acclaimed BCCHS A Capella Choir. What a musical family she came from. Her Dad, Art, played trombone in the Phoenix Big Band, and her mother was known early on in Kansas as “Saxophone Max,” while her brother, Jay, an undergrad from Olivet, earned his doctoral degree from Eastman School of Music and went on to be a professor of music at several universities.

From her first car in high school, a classic white 1963 Rambler sedan with “three on a tree,” to her racy red 1968 Camaro convertible during college, Janine was a car buff and probably could have been a race car driver. Janine began attending Kellogg Community College while still in high school, and earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Western Michigan University in 1978. She began her career at Edward Rose and Sons in Kalamazoo, where she worked for 20 years. She later earned her MBA from Western Michigan University in 1998 before relocating to Los Angeles. There, she was employed by Giroux and Associates for many years.

Janine enjoyed summer picnics and concerts at the Hollywood Bowl with friends for over 20 years. She also had a keen interest in science and learning, from programs on space at the Griffith Park Observatory, to programs sponsored by the UFO & Paranormal Research Society. In 2023, Janine enjoyed the 50th Reunion of the BCCHS A Capella Choir trip to Romania, reliving stories, anecdotes, and pratfalls of the trip with many of her former choir members. Janine’s flair for entertaining and comic relief made her the life of the party, wherever she went.

A memorial service will be held in Battle Creek in 2025. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lupus Foundation of America.