Remembering Janice McMillan, spy’s wife with second life as Key Peninsula volunteer

As the wife of a diplomat who was also a spy, Janice McMillan led a life of shared adventure during the Cold War, serving with her husband in Japan, India, Egypt and Turkey.

In retirement, the couple settled in the small community of Home and adopted the Key Peninsula, its schools and its health as their new sphere of action.

Sunday, Oct. 3, friends and family will gather at 3 p.m. in the Key Peninsula Community Center, 17010 S. Vaughn Road, to celebrate the life of Janice McMillan, who died Aug. 1 at the age of 91.

“They were truly a team,” said Curt Scott, a longtime friend of Janice and her husband, Hugh, who survives her at 94. “He was the front man, but I do believe she was the brains behind the scene.”

Janice Lucille (Grosser) McMillan was born in Tacoma in 1930 to Ella and Vernon Grosser. She was a graduate of Stadium High School, while her future husband attended Lincoln. They didn’t meet until both attended what was then the College of Puget Sound.

A college fraternity date

“I saw this young woman who should have been on the cover of Vogue magazine,” Hugh McMillan remembered later. “I fell in love with her at a distance.”

At a fraternity function, Janice asked his help organizing a party since, she said, “I hear you’re the party man.”

“I said, ‘Only if I’m invited and you’ll be my date,’” Hugh recalled in an interview in July. “We’ve been together ever since.”

They married in June of 1952, and shortly afterward began a long career overseas. Hugh was a Central Intelligence Agency agent, operating under diplomatic cover in Japan, India, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey.

According to Hugh, Janice acted the part of the diplomatic wife to perfection, chatting up guests and mingling at consular parties and embassy soirees, always keeping alert for possible sources.

“When she’d spot somebody she thought I might be interested in, she’d say, ‘Oh, you must meet my husband,’” he recalled in July.

Gardening and ikebana in Japan

The couple’s two children, Lance and Marshall, were born in Japan. Janice gardened and learned the art of ikebana, or Japanese flower arranging, which she maintained all her life, according to a family obituary.

She was also a volunteer with the United States Information Service and fundraiser for English-language libraries in all the countries in which they served.

Hugh McMillan was in charge of the consular station at Alexandria, Egypt, when the 1967 Israeli war broke out, and anti-American feelings were high, he recalled. The couple wound up organizing the evacuation of American dependents, Janice taking particular charge of getting women and children aboard a plane to Athens.

“That was a very dangerous situation, but Janice was great at organizing things on the fly,” said Scott, the family friend. “She was absolutely fearless. She would take action and get things done.”

Janice had a knack for reading a situation and picking up on nuances, said Scott, who repeated a story Hugh told him about a situation in Turkey, where a meeting between rival Turks was turning unfriendly.

“They were about to have a shooting fight, and Janice picked up on it before Hugh did,” said Scott. “She said, ‘Hugh, you’ve got to get this guy out of here.’ And Hugh told me later, ‘She was dead-on right.’”

Scott said he always thought the CIA, which was “very patriarchal” in those days, missed a bet not having her on the payroll.

When Hugh retired from the CIA in 1979, the couple settle in Home, where they lived for the next 42 years.

Second life as a volunteer

Janice McMillan later served as a senior member of the Key Peninsula Health Board, the Key Peninsula Orthopedics Guild, and volunteered with the Angel Guild in Key Center. She also volunteered with the Mustard Seed Project and the Key Peninsula Free Clinic. Both she and her husband volunteered as tutors with Communities in Schools Peninsula.

The Free Clinic “would not be the same without the unconditional support from Janice McMillan,” said Anne Nesbit, the executive director. “Her faith in us was a huge support and an inspiration.”

Janice McMillan was also known as a gourmet cook, the keeper of a “bottomless cookie jar” and baker of marionberry pies.

“She was a terrific cook, just phenomenal, over the top,” said Scott. “She could make a fantastic meal out of nothing, and I’ve watched her do it. And she made the best cookies I’ve ever eaten anywhere.”

Besides her husband, she is survived by son, Lance, and a grandson, Cameron, both of the Peninsula area. The couple’s other son, Marshall, died in a boating accident in 1980 at the age of 19.

The family suggests making memorials to the Mustard Seed Project (http://themustardseedproject.org), the Peninsula Schools Education Foundation (www.psefd.org) or the Key Peninsula Free Clinic (http://www.keyfreeclinic.org).

This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.