Janene Verge Ferguson

Janene Verge

Janene Verge Ferguson met her husband John C. Ferguson ’67 at Burbank High whom she describes as “super handsome baseball player.” They met at the Westward Ho restaurant after a Backwards Dance sitting at a round table for 5 couples. Janene was a junior and John was a senior and both were with other dates. They sat across from each other and kept looking at each other over their menus. Then they kept “running into each other” between classes; said “Hi” — then finally got a chance to talk at a basketball game. A few weeks later John called for a date to go to the Ice House, April 22, 1967. They dated off and on through college and married five years later on April 22, 1972. It totals 46+5 representing the years they have known and loved each other!

They have two daughters, Aubrie, 40, married with a daughter Linnaea 9 and son Quade 6-1/2; and Lancianne, 37, married and expecting her first child, a girl, in November. Aubrie lives 20 minutes away and is an editor at Teacher Created Materials. Lancie is in Monrovia and is an Executive Assistant for the Headmaster at Mayfair School in Pasadena. They both have wonderful husbands!

Janene obtained a Bachelors in Fine Arts from USC in 1972 and Masters in Public Art Studies from USC in 1995.

She is retired almost 3 years from the City of Torrance as Cultural Services Supervisor. She does lots of walking, yoga, lifts weights at a gym and rides a stationary bicycle and sometimes takes an aerobic dance class. She also enjoys taking a watercolor class, watching grandkids’ soccer, basketball or volleyball games, traveling when she and her husband can, volunteering at the Torrance Art Museum, heading to Big Bear once a month and trying to de-clutter and clean out.

She feels her greatest accomplishment happened in 1984, when she with two other moms, started a volunteer art program at theirTorrance elementary school: Hands on Art. It grew to every classroom and eventually grew to every Torrance elementary school—19 elementary and 9 middle schools. This sustainable art program is sponsored by PTAs and has educated hundreds of thousands of students and adults in the visual arts in the last 35 years and continues to do so.

“High school was fun with happy memories of good friends—Kenda Vaughan and Toni Szilagi—plus the whole class was good. Loved the weekend games and dressing up for the dances and learning to drive. Meeting John at that time made it especially exciting.”

Janene Verge Ferguson