Janice Phillips Larrick, whose name is synonymous with nursing and symphony orchestra music in Butler County, was always a positive person who loved her large family and the community.

Janice, of Butler, died Sunday at age 96.

“My mother was always trying to find the good in everything,” said Gordon Phillips of Mechanicsburg, the youngest of the nine children she had with her first husband, the late Victor K. Phillips.

If he had to chose one word to describe her, it would be “love,” her son said.

“Her love for Jesus Christ was No. 1. It was the love for all her children. It was the unconditional love for all of her grandchildren, and it was the love for her community,” Phillips said.

It was her love of the community that led her to provide Butler County Community College with seed money for the nursing program to help the future generation of nurses, he said.

Her legacy in nursing began when she graduated from the Butler County Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1946 after graduating from Butler Senior High School.

She worked as a nurse and became the nursing co-supervisor at Butler Memorial Hospital. She developed a pneumonic clinic for the Tuberculosis Society of Butler and was a nurse for schools in the City of Butler. She was also active with the Nurses Alumni Association and served as president for a time.

Later in life, she made several contributions to BC3, where she studied from 1967 to 1968. She established an endowed scholarship for the Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health, donated $50,000 for a simulated laboratory for the nursing program and, in 2017, provided a $1 million gift to the BC3 Education Foundation.

The $1 million gift was made in memory of her late husband and is being used to help fund construction of the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building. Construction is underway on the main campus in Butler Township.

“She loved BC3 specifically the Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health and, more specifically, our students,” said Nick Neupauer, BC3 president.

He recalled the reaction nursing students had in a ceremony the college held to accept her donation for the laboratory.

“After the ceremony, each nursing student thanked her. It was so incredibly heartfelt,” Neupauer said. “She respected nursing students and knew the rigors of the field they’re about to go into.”

Phillips Larrick helped establish the Butler County Community Kindergarten through the GFWC Junior Women’s Club of Butler and supported the Butler Area Public Library.

She was among the first board members of the Butler County Symphony Orchestra and played cello for several years in the orchestra. She was also active in the Musical Theatre Guild.

“My mother’s love for Butler was unmeasurable,” Phillips said.

Her love for her family was immense, he said. When he called her recently to check on how she was feeling, she wanted to know how his children were doing, he said.

“She always found something positive with everything. She lived a good life. She lived life,” Phillips said.

One of her daughters from her first marriage, Clarinda Roe, of Johnson City, Tenn., said the dedication her mother had to nursing and the Butler County Symphony Orchestra while raising a large family inspired her children.

“What a wonderful role model she was for us,” Roe said.

She said her mother ran a busy household. Her older children were in high school while the younger children were in grade school.

“We all got home from school around the same time. How she did it, I don’t know,” Roe said.

She said her mother taught her about responsibility.

“I credit her for making me a leader. She gave me a lot of responsibility,” Roe said. “Mom wanted me to be candy stripper at the hospital. I became president of the group. I learned to cook. Mom would leave instructions for me to put a roast in the oven.”

Roe went on to become a teacher, shop owner and children’s minister in Tennessee.

“People say I’m at ease around others. That’s because of my mother,” Roe said. “We're all better off having the mother we had. She was wonderful.”

She said her mother stayed in a positive frame of mind and never complained when she became ill.

“I was home a couple weeks ago. We laughed. We ate well. We had a wonderful time. It was a great gift from God to me,” Roe said. “She always asked about you. ‘Tell me what’s new in your life’ she said.”

The nine children from her first marriage provided 22 grandchildren.

After Victor Phillips died in 1991, she married Harold S. Larrick in 1992. Harold was the widower of Opal Whitacre, and the couple had five daughters who provided 15 grandchildren.

The combined families gave Janice and Harold 74 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.