GENEVA – Janet Safanda was a fierce defender of history, first as a founding board member of the Geneva Historic Preservation Commission in the early 1980s and later as executive director of Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley.
Safanda also was devoted to the League of Women voters of Kane County, serving as its president, but was best known for moderating candidate nights in local, state and congressional races.
Safanda, 71, died Saturday at home in Geneva after a long battle with ovarian cancer, her friend and fellow league member Janet Craft said.
“She just had a remarkable gift for hospitality – certainly in her personal life for family and friends and it spread in her community activities,” Craft said. “She was a welcoming presence. ... She was so committed to the league’s purposes. She never got over being excited about what we could do as far as making information available, getting people really keyed into the election process and into good government.”
Liz Safanda, her sister-in-law, said they were friends before Janet married Roy, her husband of 46 years. And once Janet put down roots in Geneva, she became a strong community organizer and advocate for civic issues and against war, Safanda said.
“She worked for voter rights, voter services – and she also was very anti-war,” Safanda said. “She and I and many others demonstrated at the old courthouse in Geneva and at the bridge in St. Charles in [President] George Bush’s lead-up to the Iraq war.”
Safanda said Janet was a pacifist, even against war during the Vietnam era.
“She admired [the troops], but she wanted to bring them home,” Safanda said.
Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns said the city’s flags are flying half-mast to honor Safanda’s passing and the deaths of two other notable Geneva residents, Carlton Juby, a local businessman, and John Barton, a former coach at Geneva High School.
“Geneva will long remember the passion and the purpose that Mrs. Safanda brought to her work in preserving the treasures we all hold dear,” Burns said. “Her commitment to preservation as a whole was matched by her elegance, grace and kindness.”
A memorial service is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church, 227 East Side Drive, Geneva.