Janet Maxim, 1988

Janet Ann Peavyhouse was born in 1941 in Tennessee, the daughter of Kenneth Abraham and Justine Eula (Richardson) Peavyhouse. In 1950, Janet and her four siblings were living with their parents in Fentress County, Tennessee. Her father was working in newspaper advertising, and her mother was keeping house. Janet was pictured in the Western Kentucky University of Bowling Green, Kentucky Talisman yearbook in 1960, as part of the freshman class. Her address in the yearbook was given as South Lyon, Michigan. In 1961, she was listed in the College Heights Herald of Bowling Green, Kentucky as one of the sophomore students who had achieved a 2.5 or better grade point average. In 1963, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported a marriage license issued to Alexander T. Maxim of Drayton Plains, Michigan and Janet A. Peavyhouse of Kalamazoo, Michigan. I believe Alexander and Janet had twin sons in 1966, Marc and Michael. They were later divorced.

I first met Mrs. Maxim in the fall of 1988, when I was taking her Algebra II course at Avondale High School. I wish she could have been my math teacher throughout high school. I was coming from freshman Geometry with Mr. Kraft, and the next year I would be going to junior Trigonometry with Mr. Kraft. Mr. Kraft once told my mother at parent-teacher conferences that while he understood math very well, he didn’t know how to explain it. It showed. Mrs. Maxim both understood and could explain math wonderfully. Many students had a hard time with the concept of variables – she would try to help by substituting happy faces or random squiggles for letters, emphasizing that it didn’t matter what we called the variables, they were standing for something else and our goal was to find their value. We did a lot of graphing (before the advent of graphing calculators) and learned to solve systems of equations, among many other things. Though I didn’t know her well at the time, my future bestie Kim was in that class. She had always struggled with math and did still, but Mrs. Maxim (and Kim’s future husband Tony) helped her a lot and she did better than she ever had. We didn’t know anything about Mrs. Maxim’s personal life, of course, and she was always both professional and friendly in the classroom.

 

When Janet’s father Kenneth Peavyhouse died in 1988, his obituary in the Tampa Bay Times of Saint Petersburg, Florida, told that his daughter Janette Maxim was a resident of Orchard Lake, Michigan. When her mother Justine Peavyhouse passed away in 2007, Janet A. Maxim was a resident of Rochester Hills, Michigan. Janet’s ex-husband Alexander Maxim died in 2016, at which time the following obituary was published by the funeral home:

“MAXIM, Alexander T.; of Goodrich, formerly of Lake Orion; June 6, 2016; age 74. Husband of Carole; father of Marc (Sanny) and Mike (Adrienne); stepfather of Pat (Heather) Rausch and Megan (Joe) Wood; preceded in death by granddaughter Gianna; grandpa of Nicole, Dante, Kyle, Casey, Montana, Katianne, Morgan, Colton, Jade and Albert; brother of Donald (Ruth Ann), Gladys (Doug) Baker, Evelyn (Mike) Polinsky and Marybeth (Rick) Smith; Alex retired as an Industrial Arts teacher for Centerline Schools and was a member of the MI Fiero Club. Alex never met a project he didn’t want to start and will be remembered for his jokes and legendary sweet tooth. Friends may visit at Lewis E. Wint & Son Funeral Home, Clarkston Thursday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Funeral Service Friday 10 a.m. at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to Lake Louise Church of the Nazarene or St. Joseph’s Hospital Gustafson Cardiac Care Center. Obituary provided by Wint & Son.”

 

I last saw Mrs. Maxim in 1997, when she attended a graduation open house for my sister, to which our mother invited many of all our favorite teachers from all our years in school. I was proud to be able to tell her that I was a math teacher myself at the time. She was the best math teacher I ever had – she understood the theory and application of algebra and completely and made it easy to understand for her students. I believe she is now aged 84 years and living in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Thanks, Mrs. Maxim, you were a fantastic teacher.

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