Meyers, Jan, 1928-2019

Janice Lenore Meyers (née Crilly; July 20, 1928 – June 21, 2019) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas from 1985 to 1997.

Born Janice Lenore Crilly in Lincoln, Nebraska, she was raised in Superior, Nebraska, attending the public schools there. She earned an Associate in Fine Arts degree from William Woods College in Fulton, Missouri in 1948 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1951. From 1951 until 1954, she worked as an advertising and public relations assistant for a radio station in Omaha and a department store in Lincoln, Nebraska. From 1967 to 1972, she was a city councilwoman in Overland Park, Kansas. From 1972 until 1984, she was a member of the Kansas Senate. In 1978, she ran for the United States Senate, but was defeated in a multi-candidate Republican primary which was won by Nancy Landon Kassebaum.

In 1984, she was elected as a member of the Republican Party to the 99th United States Congress and to the five succeeding Congresses. She served from January 3, 1985, until January 3, 1997. Though a fiscal conservative, she held moderate social positions, especially on reproductive issues and gun control. She was a regular defender of a woman’s right to seek an abortion, particularly in cases of rape or dire medical threat to mothers. Promoted the chair of the Small Business Committee after Republicans took control of the House in 1995, Meyers was the first Republican woman to chair a House committee in over forty years. She was not a candidate for re-election in 1996.

After leaving Congress, Meyers returned to Overland Park, Kansas, where she joined foundation boards for a local library and a community college. She died from heart disease on June 21, 2019, at a hospital in Merriam, Kansas.