Janet Stout

Janet B. Whitenack Stout

Janet Brandon Whitenack Stout (24 November, 1907 – 23 February, 1985), was among the earliest people to become a Baha'i in Alaska, and she served on the first Local Spiritual Assembly in Alaska in Anchorage and the first National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska. She pioneered to the remote communities of Tulaksak and the Matanuska Valley in Alaska, and served on the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Matanuska Valley.

Life

Early Life

Stout was born into the wealthy Whitenack family in Pelham, New York, on November 24, 1907. She had a $2000 yearly clothing allowance and her own car as a teenager. She had a B.A. degree from Syracuse University, 1929. She later spent her clothing allowance on typing lessons. Janet was a junior executive with the New York Chapter of the American Birth Control League for six years before moving to Alaska. She first heard of the Faith in 1935 from her private secretary, Grace Bastedo, while in the position, and lived two blocks from the New York Baha’i Center, but did not investigate the Faith beyond attending some firesides held at Grace’s home. She was a Protestant at the time and attended Church regularly.

Finding the Faith in Alaska

By 1939 she had grown dissatisfied with life in New York and decided to move to Alaska. She spent the summer studying Alaska in order to determine where she should live and what her occupation should be. She later wrote the following of the move:

Inspired by stories of Alaska, I set out alone for America's last frontier to find a "new way of life", where the individual, any individual, would be accepted on the basis of his own worth only; and to find the peace that comes with nature's unspoiled domain.

Grace told Janet that a Baha’i had pioneered to Alaska and Janet said she would be interested in meeting with them, however no details about the pioneer had been reported to the New York Baha’i community before Janet left.

Janet travelled to Seattle and took a ship to Juneau, arriving on May 30, 1939. She lived in Juneau for one month, but decided that she would not be happy living there permanently and took a plane to Fairbanks. She decided to settle in Fairbanks, but visited Anchorage first.

While in Anchorage she decided to open a bookstore when she returned to Fairbanks. She was put in touch with Honor Kempton, a Baha’i who had pioneered to Alaska and was in the process of opening a bookstore in Anchorage at the time. Janet and Honor had both been at the Juneau docks in May 1939, as they had arrived in Alaska at similar times. Honor and Janet discussed the specifics of opening a bookstore, and Honor eventually mentioned the Faith, and gave Janet some pamphlets. Janet studied the pamphlets and discussed the Faith daily with Honor. She became a Baha’i nine days after she had first met Honor. She later wrote the following regarding her declaration:

"On August 6th, just nine days after meeting Honor, and only five days after Honor first mentioned the Baha'i Faith to me, I told her I wanted to be a Baha’i. She was standing by the window of her apartment, a radiantly beautiful woman. There was no audible response to my declaration. She seemed stunned. She turned from me and looked out the window. So I repeated my wish, and asked, "What do I do, Honor?" Then she came to me, patted me on the head, and said, "God bless you, Janet.""

On August 10 Janet returned to Fairbanks, and opened her bookstore. She requested that she be sent Baha’i literature and Declaration cards soon after returning so that she could establish a Baha’i study group. Another Baha’i pioneer, Betty Becker, joined Janet in Fairbanks in 1940 and helped her run a study group and teach the Faith to many people living in and visiting Fairbanks.

She received a letter from the Holy Land acknowledging her Declaration in February 1940:

Dear Bahá’í Sister,

The Guardian has received your most welcome message of December 31st, and feels truly delighted to know of your recent confirmation in the Faith, and of the pioneer work you are now undertaking in Alaska,* in collaboration with our beloved sister Miss Honor Kempton.

He is indeed grateful to you for having offered to teach and establish the Cause in that far off land, and feels confident that through the promised confirmations of Bahá’u’lláh and your own persistent efforts you will eventually succeed in completely attaining your goal. The various measures you have already taken with the view of giving widespread publicity to the Teachings have been noted with deep interest and appreciation by the Guardian who indeed trusts that they will result in attracting to the Cause people of capacity and understanding.

He would urge you and also dear Miss Kempton to persevere, and through your joint exertions endeavour to pave the way for the formation of a local assembly in Alaska. Rest assured his prayers will be specially offered on behalf of you both, that you may receive ever increasing strength, capacity and guidance to carry out your high teaching mission to complete success. With the renewed expression of his abiding gratitude for your devoted services, and with loving greetings,

Yours very sincerely, R. Rabbani

[From the Guardian:] Dear and valued co-worker: Your letter cheered and heartened me in the conduct of my arduous duties and responsibilities. I rejoice to learn of your high endeavours in that distant field, and I will specially pray with increasing fervour for your protection and success. How great your privilege, how laborious your task, how noble your mission! Do not feel disheartened.

Persevere and be confident always. Your true and grateful brother,

Shoghi

By 1941 there were two active Baha’i study groups in Fairbanks. Janet visited California to speak about her experiences in Alaska at the 1941 Geyserville School. Janet's bookstore was in the lobby of a Fairbanks hotel which the US army took over in the early 1940’s, as they required buildings to house personnel.

Pioneering

In 1942 she received a temporary probational appointment as a teacher with the Office of Indian Affairs which allowed her to live in Tulaksak, an entirely Eskimo community eighty miles east of Bethel. Janet wrote the following regarding the opportunity which was published in Baha’i News: “I feel that my destiny is there, and that I shall make that my life work. I’ll be entirely on my own, and will be nurse, doctor, etc. as well as teacher”

She lived in Tulaksak for a year. Her position with the Office of Indian Affairs required that she not teach the Faith in the community, but she was invited to give a talk on the Faith at a service held in the communities Church after resigning shortly before departing. It took 45 minutes for her to give a speech using an interpreter and she said that she was unsure of the general response, although one man told her that everybody liked the talk and several people thanked her. She was named on a Pioneer Honor Roll published in Baha’i News in 1944 for her move to Anchorage.

She moved to Anchorage from Tulaksak on the request of the Alaska National Teaching Committee so that the Local Spiritual Assembly of Anchorage, the first Assembly in Alaska, could be formed to fulfill an Alaskan goal of the Seven Year Plan. She was elected as the treasurer at the establishment of the Assembly, and served on it from its formation in 1943 until she left Anchorage.

Janet met Verne Stout, the first male Baha’i pioneer to Alaska, immediately after arriving in Anchorage as he had rented a taxi to pick her up from the train station. She married Verne in January 1945, and they lived in a tent in Anchorage while Verne built a house. Their first child, the first child born to Baha’i parents in Alaska, was born on May 11, 1948. By 1948 Janet was serving on the Anchorage Youth Councils Committee on Youth in Minority Groups. The couple later had a son, born January 13, 1950.

Later Life

Janet and her husband Verne in 1976

In 1957 the first National Convention for the Baha’is of Alaska was held, and the first National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska was established. Janet helped organize the Convention (and attended the first twenty eight Alaskan Conventions). She was elected as a member of the Assembly at the Convention.

Janet taught at the first Alaskan Baha’i Summer School in Juneau in 1958, and served as the first managing editor of Alaska Baha’i News when it was established in November 1958. She left Anchorage and pioneered to Palmer, a town in the Matanuska Valley, with her family in 1958 and was elected to the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Matanuska Valley when it was established in 1960.

She remained involved in teaching campaigns in the 1970’s. She suffered a heart attack in November 1984, but continued to actively serve the Faith until her passing in February, 1985 after being taken to hospital due to breathing problems. She had attended a deepening class the day before her passing.

References

• Obituary, Baha’i World, Vol. 19, p 661-662
• In Search of a New Way of Life; World Order, Vol. 9, No. 11, pp. 383-388