Nancy "Janie" Jane Wright

Nancy Jane Fisher was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma on October 23, 1940 to Henry and Delta Fisher. She was the fourth of their six children. Throughout Nancy’s life, her father moved the family back and forth between Oklahoma and California a number of times, following the crops as itinerant harvesters. Because she attended so many schools, often more than one in a single grade, some school subjects would end up being taught twice, and other subjects would end up being skipped in her education.

 

Ultimately, the family settled in California, and she attended Washington High School in Fremont. In addition to being on the school paper, she also played basketball and was a majorette. While in high school, she met her future husband, Floyd Wright, when he was home on leave from the army in 1958. After briefly attending San Jose State, she married Floyd at the SJSU campus chapel on June 28, 1959.

 

Both Nancy and Floyd loved Alfa Romeo sports cars, and were very involved in the Sports Car Club of America in the early years of their marriage. Nancy began working at Lockheed Aircraft Company, then moving to Moffett Field/Ames Research. According to saved job reviews the family found among her papers, Nancy “performed mathematical manipulations as required, reducing analog and digital computer data,” just like in the movie, Hidden Figures.

 

For a number of years, Nancy stopped working outside the home when she and Floyd began their family, and had three children in four years. In addition to raising children, Nancy had to contend with packing up the house and moving twice across the country while the children were in grade school.  Lockheed first transferred Floyd and his family to Greenville, South Carolina, then a short time later transferred him to Newport News, Virginia for two years. The couple planned a different route across the USA each time, allowing their family to visit almost all the contiguous states.

 

Once the family finally settled back in Fremont, Nancy continued to raise the children, and to supplement the family income, began a licensed daycare in her home. She was tenacious in finishing her college degree, a journey through five colleges in three states, ultimately earning her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.  At the same time, Nancy began to work outside the home, beginning at Inland Ryerson Steel, Shasta Beverages, the Oakland Tribune, then ending her career at Nellcor puritan Bennett as an International Accountant before retiring to Arizona in 1998.

 

Nancy was both a life-long learner and early-adopter of technology. In the 1970s she brought home the largest counter appliance her family had ever seen, and announced that this was the latest cooking technology: a microwave oven. When personal computers came out, she brought home a TRS-80 from Radio Shack, then later upgraded to a Commodore 64. She was not afraid to open up a PC, and she would open up computers and replace hard drives like it was no big deal, which was very unusual for a woman at that time, let alone someone her age.

 

Her son-in-law owned a bicycle shop in the 1980s, and that’s when Nancy joyously began to cycle, joining the local bicycle club, the Fremont Freewheelers. When she became a grandmother in the 1990s, she continued to ride, bringing along her grandsons, first on the back of the bicycle, then in a trailer, then in a bicycle-attachment Alley Cat. She adored being a grandmother and said it was the largest joy of her life. She took many long rides, including overnight rides up and down the coast of California. For a while, she even commuted to her job at the Oakland Tribune by bicycle. When she moved to Arizona, she began to ride there as well, in addition to joining a hiking club.

 

Nancy followed her husband Floyd into local politics, serving on the Humboldt City Council for many years, even becoming Vice Mayor. Even years afterward, she would  faithfully listened to the online council meetings, emailing questions, answering current member’s questions with her 25 years of political community knowledge. 

 

Nancy loved to sew, and from the beginning of her marriage made her own clothes, her children’s clothes, and even matching doll clothes for her daughter. Eventually, this culminated in her taking a class and making a men’s suit for Floyd, which she said was the most challenging thing she had ever sewn. She began to quilt as well, and enjoyed sewing little things for family and friends until her essential tremors forced her to give up this hobby. Unfortunately, the shaking also forced her to stop being able to complete her crossword puzzles, which she loved doing daily.

 

Nancy and Floyd shared 62 years together until he passed away of Alzheimer’s disease in 2021. In 2023 Nancy moved back to Fremont, she plunged into activities at three senior centers, playing canasta and mahjong, line dancing, and Zumba. Nancy sailed through a hip replacement in 2024, and was finally addressing the essential tremors with a deep brain stimulation implant at Stanford when a brain tumor was discovered. A large Grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme was removed April 1. The aggressive cancer quickly returned, and she passed away at the age of 84 on August 25, 2025.

 

Nancy is survived by her children, Amy (Michael) Genthner, Dennis Wright, Chris (Theresa) Wright;  grandchildren Gabriel (Julia) Wright, Zachary (Jordan) Genthner, Samuel Genthner, Zachariah (Cayla) Toole, Amanda Toole, Timothy Toole, Kendra (Lonnie) Ruffcorn and Warren Wright; great grandchildren Charlotte Wright, James Newton, Chance Toole and Charlotte Toole.