Arlington Hts. teacher remembered for bravery

If there were an award for heroism, friends say, Janet Lynne Daniels of Arlington Heights would win it.

Not only for the way she fought her breast cancer diagnosis, but for her career: She was a middle school substitute teacher -- by choice, they quickly add.

Family members and co-workers now are mourning her passing. Mrs. Daniels died Nov. 14. She was 53.

"She had a special calling for teaching middle school students," says her husband, Laurence. "She was always able to communicate with them. I think it was her motherly instinct that helped her, and she wasn't afraid to give them the extra help they needed."

A co-worker at Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights, Sharon Takahashi, concurs.

"She substituted in all subject areas over the years, but most recently helped with long-term substituting in language arts and social studies," Takahashi says. "Having been a teacher herself, she was able to adjust, adapt and modify lessons, 'on her feet.'

"My guess is that over their three years at Thomas, every student had Janet as a substitute at one time or another," she adds.

Mrs. Daniels had grown up around teachers. Her mother, Minnie Eileen Ensign, now of Arlington Heights, had been the school nurse at Maine East High School in Park Ridge.

The family lived at the time in Des Plaines, and Mrs. Daniels attended Maine West High School, graduating in 1971.

She and her husband had been high school sweethearts, and he suspects her mentor was her high school English teacher at Maine West, Ruth Basenbach.

"Miss Basenbach loved reading, and she taught it in a very interesting way, that it motivated them," Daniels says.

Once Mrs. Daniels earned her education degree from Northern Illinois University in 1975, she accepted a job with Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54, teaching seventh-grade language arts at Frost Junior High School in Schaumburg.

She taught literally until the day her first child, Blake, was born in 1980. Mrs. Daniels remained home for a time, welcoming a second son, Bradley, as well.

She re-entered the work force, teaching for one year at Lake Zurich Middle School North, before returning to substituting closer to home, in Arlington Heights Elementary District 25, from 1989 to 2007.

For the last several years, Mrs. Daniels had been quietly fighting breast cancer, though she continued to teach and helped counsel many other breast cancer patients, her husband says, especially those who had just been diagnosed.

"They were often frightened," Daniels says, "and she'd talk to them about getting through treatments and just what to expect."

Besides her husband, Mrs. Daniels is survived by her two sons, Blake of Alexandria, Va.; and Bradley of Chicago, and her mother, Minnie Eileen Ensign of Arlington Heights.

Services have been held.