Jann Ellen Loafman

Jann Ellen Farley Loafman of Belton Texas passed away peacefully at her home on April 17, 2025 with her husband and two sons present. She was 72 years of age. Celebration of Life will be at 1:00 pm on August 8, 2025, at the Belton Church of Christ with Mickey Blanks officiating. A reception will follow the service.

Jann was born on June 3, 1952, in Idabel, Oklahoma to Glin & Wilma Lois Hughes Farley. She grew up in the Idabel area and Shidler, Oklahoma. She graduated from Shidler High School in 1970 as valedictorian of her class. She went on to attend college at Oklahoma Christian College in Edmond, Oklahoma the summer after graduation. She transferred to Northwestern State College in Alva, Oklahoma for her freshman year. She then transferred to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma at the start of her sophomore year of college where she went on to graduate in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education.

During her sophomore year at OSU, Jann met the love of her life, incoming freshman Steven Loafman, at church. After her junior year of college, she married Steven at the 12th and Drexel Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on August 11, 1973. They went on to enjoy 51 plus years of marriage until her passing. She was Steve’s loving wife, partner, and best friend who raised a family together and met all of life’s challenges together no matter what they were.

Jann worked full time primarily as an English language arts schoolteacher. She taught in Red Rock, Oklahoma, Howe, Texas, and Belton, Texas. She also worked as a substitute teacher in Sherman, Texas and Belton. She retired in 2012 with 24 years of credited teaching service. Teaching students was one of her passions in life and she put a lot of time and effort into her preparations.

Jann was a kind, polite, compassionate, and thoughtful person to everyone she encountered. Jann was the loving and encouraging mother of Lucas and Travis as well as a mother at heart to Angie Perez Bartley with whom she shared a special bond for almost 30 years. She was a loving and dedicated grandmother to her five grandchildren. She was a faithful member of the Church of Christ her entire life. She was a Bible class teacher, a Tuesday-Thursday school teacher, and a volunteer at Christian Farms Treehouse. Sadly, COVID, cancer, and a compromised immunity system forced her to watch church services on line the last five years of her life. These restrictions also made it very difficult to interface with anyone indoors, including family, this past five years.

Jann was the family communicator. As an English teacher she was very exacting in anything she wrote. She loved to read books and use her laptop and iPhone until the cancer no longer made it possible. She was in cancer treatment a total of four and a half years and met every challenge head on with a smile. She was very intent on researching articles on ovarian cancer. She was a member of several bulletin boards for cancer patients and she shared her experiences and counseled with others that were inflicted with this same disease.

Jann’s favorite activity was spending time at their family condo in Port Aransas. Jann and Steve spent the first year of his retirement building back their unit after it had been damaged by Hurricane Harvey. They were just moving back into their unit when the COVID pandemic started and six months later she got her cancer diagnosis. Her doctors encouraged her to spend as much time there as she could because it was her “happy place”. The condo and Port Aransas in general were a great place for physical and mental healing. It did not matter if she was there for three nights or two weeks, she and Steve were never ready to leave. She took the condo ownership seriously by serving on a by-laws committee and speaking up at almost every board meeting with fellow owners. She loved to take walks on the beach as well as around the condo complex. She loved to visit with fellow owners, condo complex staff, and visitors in the non-threatening outdoor environment.

Jann is survived by her husband Steven of Belton; sons Lucas Loafman and wife Chelsea of Salado, and Travis Loafman and wife Vanessa of Conroe.; daughter at heart Angie Perez Bartley and husband David of Round Rock; brother Dwain Farley and wife Gay of Los Alamos, New Mexico; brothers-in-law Philip Loafman and wife Jane of Edmond, Oklahoma and Randy Loafman and wife Merle of Guthrie, Oklahoma; grandchildren Adriana, Adalyn, and Annaliese of Conroe, and Caleb and Hannah of Salado; her surviving aunt Cora Lee McAdoo of Collinsville, Oklahoma who later passed on June 29th ; and three nieces Melissa Brown of Los Alamos, Kate Loafman of Edmond, and Kristen Loafman of Stillwater.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her in-laws.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made in Jann’s name to her favorite charity Neema Village P.O. Box 21553
Waco, TX 76702 (neemavillage.org).   Click here to donate

The family would like to thank her oncologist Dr. Timothy McCormick, nurses Tina and Rebecca, the rest of the nursing staff in the Baylor Scott & White gynecologic oncology department, and the entire nursing staff in the infusion center for the great care that they gave to Jann. A very special thanks goes to Dr. Penelope Holland-Barkis of the Belton Baylor Scott & White Clinic who served as Jann’s primary physician for over 20 years and who gave her the special care she needed throughout all of her medical needs.

The family would like to thank everyone for their prayers, cards, texts, words of encouragement, visits, food and flowers during this difficult time.