Remembering Janet and Warren McWilliams – Fair Oaks, CA

There are couples who live in a town. And then there are couples who quietly become part of its foundation.

For me, Janet and Warren McWilliams were exactly that.

I first got to know them while standing in line at the Fair Oaks Theatre Festival shows. Summer concerts in the park. Rotary gatherings. Chamber events. If something was happening in Fair Oaks, they were there. Steady. Supportive. Present.

Over time, those casual moments became familiar. I would see them everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Smiling. Talking. Engaged.

Warren would see me holding my camera and call out, “Chrysti, Chrysti, come take a picture!” Especially if he was standing next to Penny Howard. The two of them had a special friendship, and he always wanted that moment captured. He understood something important about life in a small town. The moments matter. The people matter. And someday, the pictures will matter.

Now they matter even more.

Photo of Warren McWilliams and Penny Howard at Christmas in Fair Oaks.

During events and Honorary Mayor campaigns, Janet and Warren did not just cheer from a distance. They showed up. Every event that supported the cause. That kind of steady support leaves an imprint.

Recently, I watched the interview Diana Cralle recorded with them through Rotary. Hearing their voices again was both comforting and profound. It reminded me how deep their roots truly ran in this community.

Warren came to Fair Oaks in 1945 as a twelve-year-old boy. His family bought a five-acre ranch at the corner of Fair Oaks and Sunset. Before so much of what we now recognize as the village even existed, they were already here.

He began working at the Fair Oaks Post Office in June of 1957. The way it happened feels like something that could only happen in a town like this. A conversation at church. A phone call the next morning offering him a job. What started as a temporary position turned into a lifetime of service. He worked his way up, retired after decades of dedication, and remained proud of the role he played in serving this town.

Janet and Warren were married in July of 1957 after meeting on a blind date the previous November at a high school play. Warren proposed at Folsom Lake. In the interview, he smiled and said he was very happy to have been married to her for sixty-three years. You could hear the affection in his voice.

Their life together was not just long; it was meaningful. It was rooted.

They lived in the same home since 1962. I had the privilege of visiting their house once. Walking through that home felt like stepping into decades of shared history. The backyard and pool were beautiful, but what struck me most was the weight of time held within those walls. Birthdays. Gatherings. Quiet evenings. Sixty-four years in one place. That kind of commitment speaks volumes.

Their service to Fair Oaks was equally steady.

Warren served as the past president twice for both the Fair Oaks Foundation for Leisure and the Arts and the Fair Oaks Historical Society. He was deeply involved in the Theatre Festival and the Chamber of Commerce. Janet was active in Inner Wheel, a global women’s service organization built on friendship and service. She spoke proudly about their foundation, which helps provide prosthetic limbs for children and supports them through age 18.

They were not occasional volunteers. They were builders. Leaders. Stewards of this community.

Janet’s energy stayed with me. Even into her eighties, she was still driving, still attending the Thursday women’s club, still participating. She did not shrink with age. She expanded into it. She modeled what it looks like to remain active, engaged, and deeply connected throughout the later chapters of life.

Janet instilled in me something I will never forget. When I began working on my Fair Oaks Finn children’s book series about a little rooster who quietly helps guide people through difficult times while loving this village with his whole heart, she was excited to read the stories. She encouraged me to keep writing. She believed in preserving the spirit of Fair Oaks through the arts.

Looking back, I realize that Janet and Warren lived the very kind of quiet, steady influence I was trying to capture in that little rooster. They were helpers. They were guides. And they loved this town deeply.

Near the end of the Rotary interview, Warren said something simple that felt entirely like him. He encouraged people to shop locally and support Fair Oaks businesses because the restaurants are good and the people are nice. That was their heart. Invest in the place you live. Show up. Care about it.

I had always hoped to sit down and interview them myself. I wanted to write their story properly, to capture their decades together in one place. I never got that chance. But I am grateful Diana preserved their voices. I am grateful I got to stand in line beside them at concerts and see firsthand what a lifelong partnership looks like.

Janet and Warren were staples. The kind of people you expect to see when you walk into a Fair Oaks event. Their presence was comforting. Familiar. Assumed.

It feels strange to imagine these gatherings without them.

They lived a long, devoted, community-rooted life together. Not loudly. Not for applause. They simply kept showing up. Year after year. Decade after decade.

Fair Oaks is better because they were here.

And those of us who knew them are better because we witnessed what commitment, service, partnership, and love for a community truly look like.

They will be dearly missed.

Here is the video of Diana Cralle’s interview with Janet and Warren, September 2020.