Janice Renae Callahan Dickens, of Kingsport, Tennessee, was surrounded by loving family members as she ended her journey here and went to meet her Lord in Heaven, early on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Jan was born on Aug. 5, 1943, but she proclaimed her aging ended at 29. To look at her made it hard to argue. She retained a youthful love of life, most likely the result of joyfully holding so many babies. She reunites with her father, Horace Manley Callahan, her mother, Mary Novella Selvidge Callahan, her sister, Bobbie Hurst, a brother, Everett Callahan, and many other friends and family that she has missed and remembered fondly. Jan is survived by her husband of 56 years, Tom Dickens, of the home, brother Clay Callahan, of Knoxville, son Tad Dickens (Elle), of Roanoke, Virginia, daughter Keri Dickens (Ralphie), of Kingsport, special niece Carol Abram (Ronnie), of Bluff City, and nephew Steve Hurst, of Knoxville. Also surviving are grandchildren Bobby Hale Jr. (Leah), Andrea McCoy (Will), Dylan Banks (Britney), nieces Wendy Tingle, of Knoxville, Angie Giblin, of Franklin, Laura Tweed, of Asheville, North Carolina, seven great-grandchildren and numerous grand-nieces and nephews, all of whom got to sit on Grammy’s lap for unconditional love over the decades. Jan was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and her family moved soon to Knoxville, Tennessee, where she grew up and graduated from West High School. She might have stayed in Knoxville, had she not run out of gas one fateful day. Tom pulled up to help her, and soon they fell in love. They moved to Kingsport with their toddler son, soon to be joined by a daughter, and lived there and in Colonial Heights for the rest of her life. Though she had been a cosmetologist in Knoxville, she became a bookkeeper, working for accounting firms and such businesses as Audition Hi-Fi and Mullins-Quillen (later Mullins Company), where she retired. She still made plenty of time to volunteer for the American Red Cross, which put her in the clinic at Colonial Heights Jr. High School, later Colonial Heights Middle School. There, she kept a kind eye on her children and grandchildren, and their friends, while not being nosy about it. She also volunteered to help financially disadvantaged families, and often stressed the lesson that no one person is better or more deserving than another. Jan spent much time teaching her children and grandchildren lifelong lessons about the value of friendship and family. “To have a friend, you need to be a friend,” she often said. Jan would reveal her own shortcomings to her children, in order that they be better to the people around them. She had guts and humility to spare, and she wisely warned of “false pride.” She leavened any lessons with great food, usually home-cooked. After retiring, she took multiple classes at East Tennessee State University and loved the learning and camaraderie she found there. Jan loved the Lord, and she would talk about her faith at any time, with anybody. She had been a member of Colonial Heights Baptist Church and Tri-Cities Baptist Church, and in recent years, she attended Heritage First Church of God. Pastor Steve Tilley of Heritage First Church of God will conduct the graveside service 2 p.m. Monday, April 27, at East Tennessee Cemetery, Blountville. The service will include only family, as we recognize the danger of large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you knew Jan, you knew she’d exercise caution at a time like this. The family will announce a celebration of life in the near future. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate to the Colonial Heights Middle School Band, 415 Lebanon Road, Kingsport, TN, 37663. Jan loved that Charger Band. East Tennessee Funeral Home & Cemetery is honored to serve the family of Janice Dickens.