[3][4] Jagan was born Janet Rosenberg on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, on October 20, 1920.

[8] The Rosenberg family lived in a bungalow at 7532 S. East End Avenue in the middle-class, formerly all-white neighborhood of South Shore.

Leading the country for only 133 days in 1953 following the free and universal election, she and Cheddi were first deposed and then jailed in 1955 on orders of Winston Churchill who feared the existence of a communist state in the Western Hemisphere.

Churchill wished to prevent the potential for the Soviet Union to form ties with the new government, though this never occurred.

Churchill had modified the Guyanese constitution to prevent her and Cheddi from holding the office of President or Prime Minister.

The PPP won the election,[7] making Jagan the first female President of Guyana, as well as the country's first Jewish and first U.S.-born leader.

She was also the fourth woman elected in her own right as chief executive of a country in the Western Hemisphere, after Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland, Eugenia Charles of Dominica and Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua.

[13][11] On July 1, 1999, after Jagan returned from the European-Latin American summit in Rio de Janeiro, she was admitted to St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in the capital, Georgetown, due to chest pains and exhaustion.

[16] Jagan resigned as President on August 8, 1999 because her health left her incapable of "vigorous, strong leadership"; she said that Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo would be her successor.

At the PPP's 29th Congress, Jagan had received the second highest number of votes (671) in the election to the party's Central Committee,[19][20] held on August 2, 2008.

In 1993, Peepal Tree Press published her When Grandpa Cheddi was a Boy and Other Stories, followed by Patricia, the Baby Manatee (1995), Anastasia the Ant-Eater (1997) and The Dog Who Loved Flowers.