Before the music came along, there was an athletic career that lasted well into middle age, and there were children. Lots of them. She's got more kids calling her Mom than Carol Brady, with four of her own and 11 foster children.

The melodies and words have sprung from her brain as if from a bottomless well. Think of it: 900 songs in 28 years. Her songs are so singable and so immediately embraced that they were included in church songbooks alongside decades-old songs that had had to pass the test of time.

"Her songs are as beloved as much by adults as children," says Jessop.

To Mormons, her songs are as much a part of Sunday as a quadruple combination. Everyone in the church knows these songs: "As Sisters in Zion," "I Love to See the Temple," "We'll Bring the World His Truth (Army of Helaman)," "(I Belong to) The Church of Jesus Christ," "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus," "Love Is Spoken Here," and "A Child's Prayer."

"They are classics in the church," says Joy Lundberg, Perry's friend, cousin and sometime collaborator.

Perry finds inspiration everywhere. She wrote "Where Is Heaven?" while pondering the whereabouts and doings of her infant son Richard, who had passed away a few hours after birth.

She wrote "Love Is Spoken Here" under duress. She planned to enter an annual church songwriting contest, but two days before the entry deadline she still had nothing. While attending a church social, she asked Doug to help her think of an idea. Doug pointed to a cross-stitched sampler on the wall: "Love Is Spoken Here."

"There's your title," he said.

The song took first place and became an LDS favorite.

She wrote the musical arrangement for "As Sisters in Zion" on a battery-powered keyboard while leaning against a fire hydrant in a weedy vacant lot in Philadelphia, waiting for her bus to be repaired.

Perry seems to be able to compose new songs on demand. Many of them began as requests from local and general church leadership. The LDS Church asked her to write music for a poem written by a pioneer 150 years earlier, which became "As Sisters in Zion." A local leader asked her to write a missionary song, which resulted in "Army of Helaman." A stake leader asked her to write a song about the temple, so she wrote "I Love to See the Temple."

Her trademark: simple, singable, melodic songs.

"Janice has one of the most remarkable gifts of melody I've ever seen," says Jessop.

Moody says much the same thing: "She has a gift for melody. And she has the ability to write in a way that resonates with people."

Yet that talent lay dormant for nearly four decades. It took a literal twist of fate (actually, her ankle) — or divine intervention, she might say — to turn her from her love of sports to songwriting.