Janet A. Rigoni

Janet Ann Rigoni, 86, passed away on October 29, 2024. Janet said she wanted to be remembered for loving her family more than anything else.

Janet was born on “8-8-38,” in Gary, Indiana, the eldest of Leonard and Ann Bessie (Kubik) Schmelter’s four children. She grew up in Hobart, Indiana, where she attended St. Bridget School and Hobart High and remained lifelong friends with her classmates. A career woman before it was common, Janet began her career as secretary to a bank vice president. Janet later worked as a secretary at Simmons Mattress Company, where a co-worker set her up on a blind date with John Rigoni. She wasn’t an immediate fan, but Janet would later marvel how a girl from Hobart and a guy from Italy could cross paths for just six months at the same workplace and find each other. Janet married John Rigoni on April 11, 1964 and had four daughters, Julie Ann, Jacqueline, Jennifer, and Joanna. Together they owned and operated Rigoni Musical Instruments in Waukegan, Illinois. Janet humbly referred to herself as the secretary and bookkeeper, though she was equal partner in their businesses, which later included ownership of a commercial shopping center. In the early days of the music store, she also took on side work typing documents and doing piecework for a car company, while simultaneously being a full-time mother and homemaker. She sewed many of her kids’ clothes, served as their Girl Scouts leader, typed up their papers, and attended every night of their performances. Janet later adored being involved in the lives of her eleven grandchildren and writing them letters. Janet believed her purpose in life was to help people, which she did in many ways, especially by handmaking hundreds of dresses to send to charities abroad and designing majestic banners and altar cloths for St. Dismas Church in Waukegan.

Janet will be remembered for loving Christmas and birthdays, her morning coffee and crossword puzzle with John, their music business, her sewing ministry, her church community, her neighbors, her schoolmates, her hometown, her volunteer work, the stranger she inevitably chatted with in the post office line, and life itself. Most of all, she will be remembered for loving her family more than anything else.

Janet is survived by her daughters, Julie (Rodney) Neville, Jacki Rigoni, Jennifer Rigoni (Jason Johnson), and Joanna (Peter) Tekampe; grandchildren, Jackie (Adam) Thomas, Anna and Andrew Neville, Stella, Giovanni, and Celeste Escobar, Rino and Enzo Johnson, Natalie, Vanessa, and Patrick Tekampe; and sisters, Carol Shingler and Linda Buzinec. She is predeceased by her husband, John, parents, Leonard and Ann, and brother, Charles.

The family is deeply grateful to Heartland Hospice, the wonderful staff at St. Anne Place, and Bickford Place.

A memorial will be held on Saturday, November 23, 2024 at St. Rita Catholic Church, 6254 Valley Knoll Road, Rockford, IL 61109. Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m. followed by mass at 11:00 a.m. and reception. Private family burial will take place on November 6, 2024 at Calumet Park Cemetery in Merrillville, Indiana. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Alzheimer’s Association, Camp Jorn YMCA, or a charity of your choice.