Tears flowed outside the church doors where Jan Dunn Keller grew up. “Once you met her, you knew you had been blessed,” said her childhood friend, Lisa Ingram Burnett.
Family, friends and students came here to say good-bye to the third grade teacher they say always gave her all in and out of the classroom.
“Jan devoured life. She loved it from the moment she woke in the morning to the time she went to bed. She never met a stranger. She never met someone she wouldn’t help,” said Burnett.
Inside Trinity United Methodist surrounded by flowers, there was a table full of pictures where her body should have been. “Life is so unfair, and no one deserves to be treated this way. No one deserves to die this way,” said Burnett.
There were also dozens of heartfelt messages from the students she cared for like her own. “She would make sure that those children had the character traits as well as the academics,” said Principal Laura France.
Jan taught in Putnam county for 15 years, four of them at Kelly Smith Elementary while France was the principal. “She was an administrators dream. She was a co-worker that people would go to for inspiration, support, laughter,” she said.
And though Keller is gone, her giving spirit will stay alive in all of their hearts. A private burial for Jan Keller will be held at a later date in Palatka Memorial Gardens.