Janet (Alberghina) Michelini

Janet Michelini, 76, (nee Alberghina) of Mahwah, born in Brooklyn, NY, passed away peacefully on November 10, 2021. Loving daughter of Olga and Francesco Alberghina. Survived by journalist and husband of 46 years, Alexander Michelini, two sisters, Karol Belmont of Staten Island, NY and Lisa Zatta of Lacey Township, NJ, and brother Nicholas Alberghina and together with her husband, 90 nieces and nephews and their progeny of grand and great nieces and nephews. She and her husband established the Janet and Alex Michelini Education Fund, which over the last year provided 48 education scholarships and healthcare grants to those descendants, mostly children. The Fund will continue to be active. Janet enjoyed an exciting career, working with legendary British hairstylist Vidal Sassoon as a salon stylist and hair model, performing in shows with him across America. In his 1968 book, "Sorry I Kept You Waiting, Madam," Sassoon penned this appreciative inscription to Janet:

"I appreciate your efforts on the shows and in the salon Janet. Thank you melady.

Vidal Sassoon.

She inspired her husband to create the Joyce Kilmer Society of Mahwah, helping him to prove Kilmer wrote his famous poem "Trees" in an upstairs room of his Mahwah house looking down a wooded hill on February 2, 1913. Janet first heard the poem as a child from the lips of her mother. The Society's dedication to Kilmer's legacy led the Bergen County Historical Society to vote him as one of 10 Bergen County "legends" in 2014, and Kilmer was later inducted posthumously into in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

 Janet was truly a citizen of the world, traveling the globe with her husband to the wonderments of 40 countries in North and South America and Europe and stretching to such faraway lands as Russia, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Their odysseys to nearly all US states gave them an eyewitness view of the magnificence of our country.

She was not only a vision of beauty, but also possessed a warm heart that found the best in just about everyone.  She was happy in New Jersey, but Brooklyn never left her soul. A devout Catholic, Janet exuded a pure goodness that touched many of those around her. And her championing of America as a beacon of freedom grew out of the service rendered by her father and multiple uncles who defended that freedom in World War II.

Janet proudly identified as a "dog mom. She often wore a light-blue cap emblazoned with that title. The center of her attention was "Bugsy," a spunky Wire-haired Fox Terrier who followed her from room to room, and if any person dared so much to aim a sharp voice her, "Bugsy" would growl at the impudent miscreant. After all, she was his "mom."

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in Janet's memory to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, PO Box 1000, Department 142, Memphis, TN 38148 or 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.

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