By Bailey Allen
Special to The Reporter
Janet S. Jones, a longtime social worker and steadfast community activist, died at her Dorchester home on June 21. She was 86.
Janet co-founded the Dorchester-Roxbury Labor Committee and, with her spouse, Davida Andelman, established the Greater Bowdoin-Geneva Neighborhood Association. She spent decades organizing around labor rights, housing, and neighborhood issues – always advocating for Boston jobs for Boston workers.
Former Boston Mayor and US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, who worked closely with her, called Janet the “calm in the storm. She was a fierce advocate for people who didn’t have one. She fought for economic justice, social justice, and her community.”
In the thick of the pandemic, Walsh, then mayor, gave Janet and Davida large boxes of masks and hand sanitizer to distribute to community members, Andelman said, and Janet personally made sure they reached businesses throughout the neighborhood.
She earned her master’s in Social Work degree from Salem State University and she worked at Westborough State Hospital for 17 years, where she served as a union steward for SEIU Local 509.
Janet also served as secretary of the Boston Ward 15 Democratic Committee, taking “copious notes” and carefully reflecting the issues discussed in meetings, according to Karen Charles, the ward panel’s co-chair.
“Every single time I ran into Janet, she was doing something for the betterment of our community,” Charles said. “Whether she was taking her dog up to the Mather School to do reading with the kids, or walking around the neighborhood, overseeing construction projects, making sure that they had diversified the workforce, it was just amazing – her tenacity and her singular focus on making the world better.”
Charles said that as secretary, Janet regularly sent greeting cards to community members for birthdays, anniversaries, or after a death in someone’s family. “She wanted everyone to know that she loved them and that she was there for them, and that she understood any happiness or pain that they were going through,” Charles said.
As to her and the couple’s dog Leilah going to the Mather School to read with elementary students, she frequently retold the story of a child asking her, “Is Leilah listening?” and her response: “Absolutely, Leilah’s listening.”
Abe Ayuso, a retired neighbor who lived around the corner from Janet, said he met her about 20 years ago during Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral’s campaign.
“Janet was just phenomenal. She became a really good friend,” Ayuso said. “She called me every time she walked by. She talked to everybody in the community without a problem. I just loved her for the way she was.”
Janet S. Jones was born Oct. 23, 1939, in Pennsylvania, to Marjorie Merrill Sloane and Joseph Sloane. Four years later, her sister, Margaret “Peggy” Sloane, was born. The family later relocated to Chapel Hill, N.C., where her father worked at the University of North Carolina.
As a young adult, Janet moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she became involved in local rent control efforts and the anti-war movement, according to Andelman.
Early in her adult work, she was a lifeguard and pool director at the West End House Boys & Girls Club in Allston. She went on to become a founding member of the Boston Area Women’s Self-Defense Collective, where she taught self-defense at women’s shelters, schools, and community programs.
She also contributed to early editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves,” co-authoring the chapters “Women in Motion” and “Women and Self Defense.”
In the 1970s, Janet met Davida, then an outreach worker with the Somerville Youth Program, sparking a partnership that would span 52 years. The two were married in 2004. They made their home in Dorchester and remained involved in numerous community causes.
With the Dorchester-Roxbury Labor Committee, Janet worked to expand access to employment opportunities throughout the city, especially for women and people of color. Those efforts extended to the Boston Employment Commission, whose meetings she attended regularly for many years.
Organizers at the meetings came to expect her voice in the room. The chairperson would usually ask, “Anything to add, Ms. Jones?” and Janet almost always did.
Former Massachusetts State Rep. Charlotte Golar Richie, who knew Janet for more than three decades, said she considered her both a political ally and a friend. She said that her husband, Winston, who served as the chair of Ward 15 for nine years, also worked closely with Janet.
“She was an organizer, a policy person, and a very committed community leader,” Richie said. “And I’m telling you, she did not hesitate to roll up her sleeves to do the hard work of organizing.”
Richie recalled Janet as a strong advocate for others and rarely sought anything for herself. She was committed to making sure that Bostonians had opportunities to work on housing and economic development projects in the neighborhood.
“She would see New Hampshire license plates coming in on [workers’] trucks, and she was like, ‘We want people from the neighborhood, from the city of Boston, to have an opportunity to work on these jobs,’” Richie said. “That’s the person she was. She was always on point.”
Former State Rep. Marie St. Fleur said that Janet taught people how to live fully and build community through her own example. “She was smart, compassionate, and tough, the kind of friend and neighbor you wanted in the trenches with you when life got difficult or when driving for change.
“I loved to hear her laugh, and when she grew passionate about a project, her energy was so infectious that you couldn’t help but join her in getting it done,” St. Fleur said. “Rest in power, my dear friend.”
In her later years, Jones was known for frequenting One Family Diner on Bowdoin Street, where she especially enjoyed the restaurant’s corn muffins.
Rachel Silveira, the restaurant’s owner, described Jones as “one of our family members. We are heartbroken by the loss of one of our cherished customers,” Silveira said in a statement.
“More than a familiar face, Janet was part of our One Family Diner family. Her kindness, warm smile, and love for our muffins brought joy to everyone who knew her.”
Janet leaves her spouse, Davida Andelman; their Australian shepherd, Sky; and several cousins, nieces, and nephews.
Bailey Allen is a member of the Janet Jones and Davida Andelman family.
July 23
July 23, 2026
