Janet Catherine (Leahy) Flaherty was born April 9, 1932, in St. Paul, Minn., to James and Ethel Leahy. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1952 and taught school in San Diego where she met her husband, Mike, a newly discharged Navy officer.
Janet and Mike were married in 1954 in St. Paul, and they lived and worked in Michigan and Minnesota before they bought the Milton Courier in 1959. They owned and operated the Courier together for more than 30 years.