Janice Elaine Gilchrist Beliasov, 89, went to heaven on June 4, 2022. She was a faithful pastor’s wife, whose husband, James Beliasov, passed in 2017.

Janice (or Jann, as she started calling herself from her college years) was born in Tilton, New Hampshire, on Jan. 24, 1933, to George E. and Vesta Love Gilchrist, whose family has been coming to the Boothbay region since 1893. Jann moved with her family to Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1935 and then graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in bacteriology in 1954. After training in the Bryn Mawr Hospital in Philadelphia, she became a registered medical technologist in 1956 and got her first medical job at the Cleveland Clinic. Up for adventure she went west and from 1957-59 she worked in the lab at Everett General Hospital in Washington state before returning east for Christian Education training. Because of this career change, she eventually joined the Fellowship of Baptists for Home Missions out of Elyria, Ohio, representing neighborhood Joy Clubs for children. It was at the FBHM home offices she met Rev. James P. Beliasov, who was starting a church in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

Janice and James were married Nov. 11, 1966, and remained at the church in Langhorne until 1973. In 1974 they moved to Manchester, Connecticut, where they started Faith Baptist Church. Janice taught Sunday School and was involved in discipleship, visitation, and encouragement ministries over the years there. They remained at Faith in Connecticut until 2003 when they retired and moved to West Boothbay Harbor full time after spending so many summers in Bayville over the years. Though James still had speaking engagements, they considered Boothbay Baptist Church to be their home.

Janice loved the outdoors, birds, and working in gardens. She was able to continue these activities in Maine until 2019 when she moved to York, Pennsylvania, to be closer to family.

Janice is survived by her only son, Paul, and his wife Miriam and their children, Noah, Noelle, and Nadia, as well as her brother Barrett (Barry) Gilchrist and his family (son Barrett and daughter Pam), who continue to summer in Bayville.

She will be buried next to her husband at Evergreen Cemetery in Boothbay.