Jane Boulter Littlejohn

Alice Jane Boulter Littlejohn went home to her heavenly reward on November 7, 2023 at the age of 93. Jane was born in Swan, Texas in Smith County on September 21, 1930 to parents Robert Spurgeon Boulter and Cecil Taylor Boulter. Her mother taught school in Tyler for many years and her father was Superintendent of Smith County Schools for more than 40 years. He is the namesake, together with Jane's brother Robert Boulter, for Boulter Middle School in Tyler, TX.

Jane attended grammar school in Swan, and graduated John Tyler High School, where she served as Drum Majorette for the marching band. She attended North Texas State Teachers College, where she met her husband-to-be Orin Littlejohn, then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, receiving her BA degree in Drama Education. She was very active in the UT Drama Department and was a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority. She and Orin married after he completed his training as a USAF fighter pilot and they lived in Apple Valley, CA while Orin served as a flight instructor for the Air Force. While there, Jane taught school in Victorville, CA, returning to Texas in 1955 to give birth to her first child, Robert Littlejohn, days before Orin's honorable discharge from the Air Force in CA.

They both then attended Stephen F. Austin State College where Jane earned her Elementary School Teachers Certificate. She taught school for several years in Dallas while Orin attended Medical School at Southwestern Medical College and completed his internship in general practice at Methodist Hospital. Jane then moved to Marshall with her husband and established her home as a mother and homemaker as he started in medical practice. She gave birth to their daughter, Eleeza, shortly after their move to Marshall.

Over her 55 years in Marshall, Jane was active in the Marshall Medical Auxiliary, serving as President, in the Harrison County Historical Society, the Marshall Symphony, Belle Maison, and Republican Women of Harrison County. She taught Sunday School at First Presbyterian Church, Marshall and was involved there in the Women's Ministry.

Jane and Orin's lives were dramatically changed during the First Presbyterian Church and Marshall's City-wide Festivals of Faith in the early 1970s, as they came to deep and abiding faith in Christ. They served on numerous lay renewal teams together with the Covenant Fellowship of Presbyterians, sharing their new-found faith at churches across the Southeast, and were later instrumental in the founding of Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Marshall in 1985. They prayed, and read and memorized the Bible together each morning, and were active in Marshall Prayer Force, Prayer Life Seminars, and the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Jane was known to all as a gracious hostess, as she and Orin welcomed countless family, friends and acquaintances from many parts of the country and around the world into their home for an evening or for weeks. She was an incurable optimist who saw the positive in her circumstances and the best in others, always offering a word of encouragement or thanks to everyone she encountered. And she never lost her college-days love for drama, often displaying a whimsical flare for the dramatic and a wry sense of humor, bringing smiles to the faces of loved ones and strangers alike.

Jane was predeceased by her stillborn son, her parents, her three brothers (and their wives), Robert Boulter (Louise), Raymond Boulter (Frances), and Randall Boulter (Betty), grandsons Jason Rex and Robert Rex, and her husband of 62 years, Dr. Orin Littlejohn. She is survived by her son Dr. Robert Littlejohn, daughter Eleeza Littlejohn Rex, daughter in-law Teresa Littlejohn, son in-law Robert H. Rex, and by her grandchildren (and spouses) David Littlejohn (Mia), Katelyn Kirnie (Nathaniel), Logan Rex, Parker Rex, Katherine Hely (Patrick), and Alison Rex (Daneil Lievens), and by great-grandchildren Emaline and Marielle Kirnie, Sullivan and Edison Littlejohn, Crawford and Margo Hely, and Eliot Rex-Lievens, and by many beloved extended family members.

The family will receive friends for a time of visitation on Friday, November 24, 2023 in the chapel of Sullivan Funeral Home from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.. A funeral service, celebrating the life of Jane Littlejohn will be held at EPC Church, Marshall, Texas at 2:00 pm on Saturday, November 25, 2023. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in remembrance of Jane to Evangelical Presbyterian Church 4700 Victory Drive, Marshall, Texas 75672.