Vanessa J. Adams

To view the service via Youtube please click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Ac9POKIis To view the service via Facebook please click the link below: https://www.facebook.com/ZandersFuneralLIVE/ Vanessa J. Adams was born January 1, 1957 at Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey to Douglas Adams and Vivian Frances Adam While in elementary school, Vanessa made it very apparent that she was performing at a higher level than her peers. As a result, she was advanced one grade level to offer her a greater challenge. Based upon her birth year, she should have graduated in 1975. As a result of the grade level advancement, she grad uated from Plainfield High School in 1974. Vanessa didn’t simply focus on academics, she was also a track and field athlete specializing in the half-mile. Upon graduation, Vanessa attended Virginia State University in Petersburg, VA, majoring in business. After one year, Vanessa decided to leave school to reevaluate her career goals. Upon returning home, our father gave her a couple of months to determine her next move. After reaching the second month, Vanessa received the Douglas Adams edict. She had three options: option 1, (get a job), option 2, (go to school), or option 3, (move out). She chose option 2. Vanessa enrolled in the Nancy Taylor Secretarial School in Plainfield, NJ. Vanessa acquired all of the skills needed to become a secretary, including stenography and typing. Upon graduation, Vanessa could type over 90 words per minute without error. Vanessa had an extensive work history. Her first job after secretarial school was at Ethicon in Raritan, NJ (Clerk Typist 1976-77). After a year in the role, she wanted to follow her dream of living in LA, so she accepted a job at Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles, CA (Clerk Typist 1977-78). I didn’t take very long to get her fill of Los Angeles, so Vanessa returned home and joined Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill NJ, where she started her Bell system career as a stenographer and clerk typist. Over the years (1978-1999), Vanessa transferred from Bell Laboratories to Bell Communications Research (Piscataway, NJ) and ultimately Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ). As Vanessa’s career progressed, she advanced to the role of secretary in Tech Employment and finally into a space planner role in Building Services. Vanessa always had a desire to return to college to complete her undergraduate degree. Early on she thought obtaining that business degree was going to be the best path for her. The more she thought about it, she realized that she had enough of the corporate environment. She decided that her next move would be to leave Lucent Technologies and work as a church secretary at her home church (Shiloh Baptist Church) in Plainfield, NJ (1999-2003). While in this role she would continue to pursue her bachelor’s degree part-time, but change her major to education. In 2002, Vanessa earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Caldwell College (Caldwell, NJ) and began her career as a social studies and history teacher at her alma mater, Plainfield High School. Toward the later part of her career, Vanessa transferred to the Plainfield Academy for the Arts & Advanced Studies (PAAAS) where she continued to teach Social Studies and History. Vanessa achieved 16 years of service before retiring from teaching in 2019. Vanessa had to retire early due to her medical condition that had started to significantly impact her ability to teach and manage a classroom. Vanessa would later learn in 2020 the medical condition was Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Vanessa was an avid reader who enjoyed a broad range of books: novels, self-help, religious studies, American history and African American history. Vanessa was also heavily into genealogy research. She would spend hours on Ancestry.com searching for clues that would lead her to find more record related to our ancestors. Vanessa even went on trips to the state archives of Virginia and Georgia in search of more records related to the Adams, Johnson, Graves, Hamlin, and Urquhart families. Vanessa was also quite a seamstress. This was a skill that Vanessa was taught by our mother. For many years, Vanessa would make her own clothes. Yes, it was a way to save money, but it was also an opportunity for her to use her creativity to make something unique and stylish. The realized savings could support one of her passions, which was shoes. Vanessa loved a stylish and high-priced pair of shoes. She had more shoes than her closet could handle. It was a life-long passion that continually tested her budgeting skills. Vanessa also loved to travel. Vanessa went on trips to many states throughout the U.S. as well as trips to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Ghana, Africa. Vanessa had dreams to do even more travel upon retirement, but unfortunately, she was not able to follow through on those dreams. There are many things about Vanessa that anyone who knew her will always remember. Vanessa loved cars. The last car she talked about buying was a Range Rover. Vanessa had a boisterous laugh, and she could be very silly. There were many moments when her brother Rodney wished she would quiet down a bit. Vanessa was social but had no problem telling you that she was tired and she was going home. When she had enough, she let you know it without hesitation. Vanessa was stubborn. Once she had her mind made up, there was no changing her mind. As a teenager, Vanessa loved to push the envelope. Nothing too extreme, but she definitely marched to the beat of her own drum. Last but not least, Vanessa had couple of dining specialties that definitely stood out. Vanessa was known for baking a delicious Seven Up Cake from scratch, but very few people knew she could also fry up some tasty chicken wings using a method that she modeled after Aunt Willie Mae Carter. On Tuesday, November 19, 2024, at 11:48 am, Vanessa J. Adams departed from this life at Vitality Living in Sanford, FL. She was preceded in death by her father, Douglas Adams; mother, Vivian Adams; brother, Arthur Adams; niece, Lisa Adams; nephew, Douglas Adams; and grand-nephew, Aaron Adams. She leaves to cherish fond memories: a brother, Rodney Adams (Sorrento, FL); sister-in-law, Kimberly Adams (Sorrento, FL); niece, Kayla Adams (Sorrento, FL); nephews: Erik Adams (Laveen, AZ) and Frederick Adams (St. Augustine, FL), nieces-in-law: LaTanya Adams (Laveen, AZ) and LaTonya Adams (St. Augustine, FL), many great-nephews, great-nieces, a dear friend Brenda J. Roberts and a host of other relatives and friends.

Tributes

Vanessa J. Adams

January 1, 1957 - November 19, 2024