Janet Claire Smyth was born on 4 April 1950 in Seattle, King Co., WA. She married Jeffrey Charles Salisbury, son of Ralph Salisbury and Joyce. Janet Claire Smyth and Jeffrey Charles Salisbury were divorced. She married Michael E. Williams. She and Michael E. Williams were divorced. She died on 3 December 2014 in Yerington, Lyon Co., NV,
Obituary (findagrave.com):
Janet Claire Smyth was born on April 04 1950, to Air Force Officer Norman Washburn Smyth and former munitions factory worker/housewife Beverly Jean Winston in Seattle, WA. Janet entered an intense pitched battle with metastatic ovarian cancer on September 18 2014, only one month after moving to Yerington, with son Travis Salisbury. Her suffering ended December 03 2014. But this is a celebration of life, not a mourning of death, for every day we're alive is a miracle.
After her birth in Seattle, her father Major Norman Smyth was transferred to a base near Glendale, CA. Janet was confirmed as an Episcopalian, as her parents, and grandparents Robert and Alcy Winston had before her. Janet and parents would remain in Southern California for about eight years, until citing health concerns for Janet, due to heat, smog, and overpopulation, Norman mustered out of the Air Force and moved wife Beverly and daughter Janet to Wolf Creek in Southern Oregon, where Norman found work as a schoolteacher. There they lived on a small farm, where Janet joined 4-H, and grew to love animals including goats, horses, and chickens, as well as dogs and cats, especially cats.
Janet's love of animals continued when her and parents moved north to Roseburg, OR onto another small farm, where she befriended Kara Brown, who lived on another farm nearby. Janet Smyth graduated from Roseburg High School in 1968. Janet went on to University of Oregon in Eugene, where she would meet husband and father of her children, Jeffrey Charles Salisbury. She also met husband Jeffrey in the field of martial arts, where they fought and trained together for several years. It was in college that Janet would broaden her horizons and her love of learning. Janet, for a time, was among the ranks of the U-of-O Honors College. Janet broke off from college about halfway through to raise her family, gave birth to sons Connor Morgan Salisbury in 1974, and Travis Logan Salisbury in 1980, and continue her farming lifestyle she had been raised with around Junction City and Veneta, near Eugene, OR. Janet eventually returned to school and graduated U-of-O in 1979 with a Bachelor's in Psychology, although she would remain a diligent student of History, Theology, Anthropology, Astronomy, Physics, and Biology for the remainder of her 64 years.
Citing “lifestyle” issues, Janet's marriage to Jeffrey was beginning to deteriorate in the late 1970's, however, in the intervening years had developed a flair and passion for writing science fiction and fantasy stories. With Jeffrey's encouragement, and financial assistance, Janet attended a series of sci-fi/fantasy conventions as a parting gift, where she would meet Roger Zelazny, Jim Burke, Damon Knight, Andy Offutt, Donald Kingsbury, and HBO's Game Of Thrones creator, George R.R. Martin. Janet would continue writing until the years after her divorce from Jeffrey, following the birth of son Travis in 1980.
Sadly, Janet's works were never published because her life turned in a different direction, in her new life as a struggling single mother, and trying to help parents Norman and Beverly with their general store/animal feed store business in Hauser, near Coos Bay, OR, which ultimately went under when the local economy went into a recession in the early 1980's. Janet briefly found work as a reporter for the now defunct North Bend News and Myrtle Point Herald newspapers. Then she worked briefly at what used to be the Surplus Sporting Goods Store in Coos Bay. She later found work as a waitress at Gussie's Bar in Empire, and then as a counselor at the Ambit Detox Facility in North Bend, both long since out of business. At this point, Janet had become dissatisfied with the hard drinking party lifestyle that was so prevalent in the 1980's, and rediscovered her Christianity, and ultimately Alcoholics Anonymous, which would be a very strong defining point for the rest of her days.
From 1992-98, Janet worked on and off as a caretaker in various area nursing homes, and did an 18 month volunteer stint at the Bay Area Rescue Mission, helping provide food, clothes, shelter, and ministry to the area homeless in 1994-95. She was also caretaker to grandmother Alcy Winston during her passing months. She also pursued her hobby of nature photography and successfully entered several photos in the Coos County Fair. She had also previously belonged to the Sierra Club. After a falling out with son Travis in 1998, Janet moved back to Eugene for two years, where she met and married second husband, Michael Edward Williams, then of Eugene, OR, and worked briefly as a bus driver for a day care center and a volunteer at the Unitarian Church in Eugene. Because of poor money management/gambling issues, Mike Williams was forced to sell off his house in Elmira, near Eugene, OR and the couple returned to Coos Bay. They would finalize divorce in late 2000.
At this same time, son Travis was in college in Eugene, struggling with autism and depression issues, and not eating very well, and Janet invited him to come back home to live with her and his grandfather Norman in Coos Bay. In 2001, after retiring from what would be her last job for 8 years, as a fish counter for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Janet and Travis took a six week vacation through the southwest states, visiting many parks, shooting many pictures, and visiting many halls of AA. It was during this trip that the tragic and fateful event of September 11, 2001 occurred with jihadists working for Al-Qaeda slamming jet planes into the World Trade Center of New York, killing upward of 3,000 people. It was a humbling experience for Janet and Travis, for they learned not to take life, or low gas prices for granted.
Janet was also a contributor to the Southwest Indian Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, two causes in which she believed. She also enjoyed watching movies with father Norman, and watching son Travis' video games, as she found the stories in those entertaining. In late 2005, father Norman's diabetes and parkinson's issues caught up with him, and Janet and Travis served as his caretakers for about a year, until he became physically too much for the two to handle, and had to be placed in a nursing home in early 2007, where he would pass four years later at 86 in 2011. Later that same year in 2007, Janet and Travis took a series of shorter trips to Northern California and Nevada, taking in the sights and scenery, and visiting many halls of AA. It was in this time that Janet fell in love with a little town in the Mason Valley, known as Yerington. She would eventually “sell” Travis on the idea of moving there, but they couldn't do it at that time because they didn't want to leave Norman alone in the nursing home.
Then the economy tanked and the money started running out. There were two years of living in somewhat reduced circumstances. Late in 2009, Janet was forced to return to work at the now defunct Bay Area Enterprises thrift store at a half-time minimum wage job that was not enough to pay rent anywhere. Travis had to stay home to care for nine cats and as many chickens. Then at the beginning of 2010, the worst moment of Janet and Travis' lives happened. Having depleted all of Norman's cash assets, and his military insurance adamantly refusing to cover, the legal representatives of his nursing home seized Norman's house in which Janet and Travis were living at the time, effectively putting them out on the street, and forcing them to give up their beloved animals. It was the saddest most heartbreaking moment of their lives.
After spending two months in the new South Coast Gospel Mission in Coos Bay, which had much stricter rules than the old Bay Area Rescue Mission that Janet had volunteered at 15 years earlier, at ages 60 and 30, Janet and Travis eventually received public housing assistance and got out of there, and not a moment too soon for the mission's director. The Bay Area Enterprises thrift store closed it's doors in April 2010, but Janet was soon hired at the Quiet Circle thrift store across the street, operated by Kathi McPherson, which is a non-profit that donates it's proceeds to a local horse ranch, where she would work another two years. She then spent about a year helping out a 94 year old woman with an acute heart condition with her garden, bearing in mind, although Janet was working and no longer homeless, she and Travis still lived in very abject poverty, where the slightest financial excess could put them right back on the street. This lasted about four years altogether. Although times were very tough, Janet and Travis still tried not too take life too seriously, have some fun once in a while, enjoy each other's company, and support each other in recovery. In July of 2014, Janet and Travis finally received father Norman's inheritance, the part the lawyers and nursing home didn't use up, and bought a couple of houses in Yerington, NV the next month, finally realizing their seven-year dream, finally surviving long years of challenges, hardships, and tough times in the name of love and family loyalty. Then Janet's short and fatal cancer battle unfolded in September, and the rest as they say, is history.
Janet is preceded in death by paternal grandparents Harold and Ruth Smyth, Ruth's second husband, Tom McLean, by maternal grandparents Robert and Alcy Winston, parents Norman Smyth and Beverly Winston, and aunt Betty Winston. Janet is survived by former father-in-law Ralph Salisbury, and his second wife Ingrid Wendt, by former mother-in-law Joyce Salisbury, by former brother in law Brian Salisbury, by first ex-husband Jeffrey Salisbury, by older son Connor Salisbury, all of Eugene, OR. Also is survived by former half-sister-in-law Martina Salisbury of New York City, by second ex-husband Michael E Williams, last known to be of Hopkins, MN, and by younger son Travis Salisbury of Yerington, NV, formerly of Coos Bay, OR. Janet has no grandchildren and never will.
A Celebration of Life service will be held 2:00pm on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at the Mason Valley Assembly of God church, 210 N. Oregon Street Yerington with Pastor Bob Bridges officiating.
Arrangements and cremation are under the direction of Freitas Rupracht Funeral Home, 25 Hwy 208 Yerington, Nevada 89447 (775) 463-2911.