Jan Speed, 64: Gardening artist

Jan Speed used her Grayson backyard as an artist might use a canvas.

She could envision ponds with koi, frogs and turtles. She could mentally place waterfalls, Japanese gardens and even an outdoor scene reminiscent of her native Tennessee: a rustic cabin with a squeaky screen door.

Every time that door swung it reminded her of her childhood, said neighbor Rita Kelly. Then, over the years, she brought her plans to life on that one-acre plot.

“You wouldn’t believe it’s just a suburban backyard,” said Ms. Kelly, who watched its evolution over the last 20 years.

“You walk back there and it’s like being transported to somewhere else. It’s just like a botanical garden,” she said.

The gardens and ponds have been highlighted in magazine and newspaper articles, and have been part of the Atlanta Koi Club garden tours for many years, said Mrs. Speed’s husband, attorney James Wallace Speed of Grayson. He is a partner with the law firm Speed, Seta & Waters, LLC of Lawrenceville.

Mrs. Speed had no design training, and never had a master plan for her yard. She used gardening as “an artistic outlet, a means for her to express her creative abilities,” said her husband. Mrs. Speed used those same instincts in decorating her home, or helping others with interior design projects.

She had a natural talent to “make something beautiful out of anything,” said longtime friend Pat Chadwick of Marietta.

Jan Speed, 64, of Grayson, died Feb. 2 at her home following a two-year battle with ovarian cancer. Memorial services are Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Tom M. Wages Snellville Chapel, which is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Speed and her husband both grew up in Chattanooga. Mr. Speed had been best friends with her older brother, Jack Reeves.

“She was just Jack’s little sister. We never even dated growing up,” Mr. Speed said.

That all changed after Mr. Speed graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and while he fulfilled his military tour overseas. The couple married in 1969, and moved to Atlanta so Mr. Speed could attend Emory University School of Law.

Mr. Speed said his wife always had a heart for children, especially if they had disadvantages in life. She worked in the Head Start program while attending the Peabody College for Teachers, now part of Vanderbilt University.

Following her graduation in 1967, she worked as a special education teacher, first in Tennessee, then in Cobb and DeKalb counties. Later, she served as director of childhood education at the Peachtree-Parkwood Mental Health Hospital, Mr. Speed said.

At home, she became a “second mom” to all of her daughter Kimberly’s friends. Kelly Wheeler has been one of those friends for the past 30 years. She said Mrs. Speed always treated her like part of the family, inviting her on numerous mother-daughter outings and other vacations.

Mrs. Speed lived with the pain of rheumatoid arthritis for the last several years, but was never one to complain about it, Mrs. Wheeler said. “She was one of the strongest women I’ve ever known,” she said.

Because of her arthritis she had to let others do the heavy gardening work while she directed. And she had to give up golf, a game she took up in her 40s and kept an impressive 12 handicap, her husband said.