Obit: Len Janski was beloved ticket-taker at fair

jpowell@startribune.com

In his many years as a ticket-taker at the Minnesota State Fair, Leonard "Len" Janski's quick wit came in handy.

Fairgoers and friends alike found it an endearing trait of a humble, kind man. Janski's work each year at the fair brought him so much more than extra money to pay the bills, said his daughter, Mary Smith, of Little Falls, Minn.

"He was an Americana sort of guy, and he was part of that World War II generation who had the dream of the American life," Smith said. "He loved what the fair was about. He loved that it was about family. He loved that people could enjoy themselves and laugh."

Janski, a lifelong resident of northeast Minneapolis, died Oct. 5 of a rare blood-related condition, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). His family suspects it might have been caused by benzene torches he used in the 1940s for the Navy. Benzene, an organic chemical compound found in fuel and other products, has been linked to the disorder.

Nearly three years ago, Smith pushed to help her housebound dad, a retired postal carrier, get a military pension. She interviewed him in order to fill out the application, using questions from the military. Sentence by halting sentence, he told of horrors of war he'd seen. She filled out the paperwork and consulted with experts.

The consensus: Her father had suffered from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for many years.

Smith said she worries that there are other older soldiers with undiagnosed PTSD and wants families to take note. In her father's case, he refused to go a veterans' hospital because he feared doctors wanted a psychological examination, Smith said.

"He didn't want his brain touched," she said. "He was scared. And I think he had just built a life of good things, tried to make himself feel useful, and helped other people. It was the way that he coped, and he had developed this wonderful, harmless way to live in the real world and to keep himself sane, and to interact with people."

Janski volunteered as secretary and treasurer of the men's club at the Church of All Saints, where he also coached youth baseball.

Born March 19, 1925, into a family of baseball lovers, he attended Edison High School. In 1944, he shipped out on the Navy's newly christened USS Alshain, an attack cargo ship sailing the Asiatic-Pacific. A Seabee, Janski helped build airfields, military bases and roads. But he also had to search ditches for corpses and survive frequent sniper fire until his honorable discharge in 1948.

Janski found his own remedy for PTSD. "He learned to humor himself through anything," his daughter said.

He worked many years as a General Mills machinist, then became a postal carrier, making friends and collecting wild mushrooms along his route until retiring in 1989.

Smith said Janski kept taking tickets at the Fair's Como Avenue entrance until he was in his 70s, for a total of more than 12 years.

"He loved to meet the people and their families," she said.

In addition to his wife Emelia, Janski was preceded in death by his parents, Mike and Helen; brothers Firmin and the Rev. Jerry Janski; and infant twin siblings. Other survivors include son Michael Janski and sister Joan Hunter.

Services have been held.