In Memoriam: Janet Groth

Janet Groth (November 15, 1936 - June 11, 2025)

It is with a full, yet heavy, heart I write news of Janet Groth’s death. Having taken her last breath in her sleep she was found yesterday morning by the caring staff of Wartburg, where she had made a home these past few years.

“A corn-fed girl from Iowa,” as she described herself in The Receptionist: An Education at the New Yorker (Algonquin, 2012), Janet came to New York in 1957 and proudly became what E.B. White called in his Here Is New York, the third type of New Yorkers: “the source of the city’s vitality, elan, and magical ‘deportment’ — those who come from the hinterland, the one for whom the city is their destination, ‘the goal’.” Janet earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota. It was then, fresh out of college, that Mr. White hired her at The New Yorker magazine: an intended six-month stint as a receptionist that lasted for two decades.

Janet Groth, from her book, The Receptionist: An Education at the New Yorker (Algonquin, 2012)

Janet Groth and literature are nearly synonymous. In a recent visit with her at Wartburg I asked her what new books she was reading. She replied almost as quickly as I inquired, with her incomparable wit: “I don’t have much time left, so I’m reading only the greats.” I knew she wasn’t joking. I eyed Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Iliad nearby. 

Janet was a Fulbright lecturer in Norway and a visiting fellow at Yale. She taught at Vassar, Brooklyn College, the University of Cincinnati and Columbia. She was Emeritus Professor of English at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Janet officially joined Saint Peter’s on September 22, 1963. She was among the young and visionary leaders who helped transform the undercroft of the old Saint Peter’s into a gallery for contemporary art. The Saint Peter’s book club and theater program (Saint Peter’s Gate) developed side-by-side with her. All of this led to Saint Peter’s unique contribution to the development of Citicorp Center, and Saint Peter’s enduring arts- and culture- based ministry. While Janet’s body had increasingly failed her in these years, her mind remained sharp. She was a trusted source of information about this pivotal moment in this community’s history; and an articulate voice on its enduring openness — and responsiveness — to the needs of the contemporary world around us.

We will celebrate Janet’s life and faith at a Mass of the Resurrection with Inurnment in Saint Peter’s Columbarium on Saturday, August 9 at 2:00 PM. She will rest next to her late husband, Al Lazar (married June 10, 1994). She is predeceased by her older brother, Joseph C. Groth, Jr. and survived by his daughters, Rebecca Bauman, Susan Babbel, and Kathleen Garza. She is also survived by the loving family she received in her marriage to Al: Paul Lazar, and his spouse Annie-B Parson, and Daniel Lazar, and his spouse Margaret Tulley. Janet was particularly close to her step-grandchildren: Jack Lazar (Paul), and Jalana Lazar and Corey Lazar (Daniel); and four great-grandchildren: Emil, Elyse, Josephine, and Orion.

The Psalmist (Psalm 31) writes “Our time, O Lord, is in your hands.” Janet’s life was one of great fullness and even to the end, filled with joy. Please hold her and her family in your prayers in these days and weeks ahead.

Rest eternal grant her, O Lord. And let light perpetual shine upon her.

Grace and peace to you,

Jared R. Stahler
Senior Pastor