Janet Elizabeth Sweatte

If you knew Janet, you remember her warm hospitality. She made you feel important. She often served a whole Cornish game hen and her “fried rice,” now a treasured family recipe, to each guest. She took her daughters to cake decorating lessons so they could customize family birthday cakes like she did. She may have knocked on your door with a primrose to cheer you up. Once, she introduced her young son, Ron, to Bill at an Issaquah nursing home she regularly visited, launching their friendship and Ron’s lifelong passion for people and their stories. Most of all, we remember how she lived her life with kindness, in service to others, and with unwavering devotion to her soulmate and husband of 67 years, J. Shannon Sweatte.

Janet Smith, born in 1937 to second generation German immigrants Ralph and Evelyn (Luiten) Smith, was their third child of seven (6 girls and a boy). The family came from hard-working wheat farmers who were invited by Catherine the Great to grow food during the famine in Odessa, Russia and who later emigrated to the dry wheat fields of Odessa, Washington.

She was raised with her six siblings in Spokane and Otis Orchards on a small family farm in a one-bathroom house, notable for a family of six girls. Neighbors helped neighbors. That’s just how it was. She milked cows before school, helped “put up” fruits and vegetables for winter, and went to church. She and her sisters ironed every blouse and skirt, and curled their hair, before leaving the house. They helped make dinner, washed dishes by hand, and sang together at the kitchen sink. Janet sang harmony. In recent years, Janet loved singing gospel and Christmas music next to Shannon on the couch. She never understood why he talked to “Alexa,” but when the music came on, she sang her heart out.

Janet met Shannon when her sister, Marian, introduced them. Shannon fell in love with her in elementary school when he saw her run “like a deer” across the playground in a turquoise green jacket and thought, “that’s the one.” They became engaged the day she graduated high school. On March 10, 1956, they were married in a little chapel at Whitworth College. She was 19. He was 20 and working on his college degree while playing football and baseball. Janet was his biggest fan. Her greatest pride was being Mrs. J. Shannon Sweatte.

Janet and Shannon raised four kids and a few horses, dogs, cats, and rabbits as they guided their kids through 4-H, sports, and school in Issaquah. Highly organized and detail-oriented, Janet ran a tight ship. She designed each family home, managed the home budget, and was Shannon’s First Lady as his radio career took off. She modeled Faith, Family and Community. Whether it was committee work, chaperoning school dances in their best clothes and dancing, or hosting Young Life gatherings, Janet and her husband shepherded their kids and taught them to fly. She was no helicopter mom, in the best way. And as busy as she was, she found time to nurture herself. Bowling on a women’s team, painting and lunches with friends were staples. You may have one of her landscape paintings or tole-painted wall clocks.

As empty nesters, Janet and Shannon loved on their nieces and nephews, especially Jessie, Mikael and Niklas, who lived nearby. Jessie had a special cubby under the stairs in mom’s kitchen where mom hid treats for her to find when she visited. She and dad traveled to watch many of Mikael’s and Niklas’s soccer games and Jessie’s horse shows and lacrosse games, and enjoyed watching them grow into good and loving adults.

If you are one of Janet and Shannon’s radio friends, you became their life-long friend. Mom may have cooked for you when, without warning, Shannon called after work to announce, “we’re on our way!” You may have cruised the San Juan Islands with them in their boating days. If you were on mom’s Ladies Bowling team at Sunset Bowl, you may recall mom’s green marble-swirl ball, a gift from dad. Green was her favorite color. If you were at Seattle’s Seafair Parade the summer of 1979, you may have seen her driving the “Seafair President” convertible through downtown Seattle with Shannon on top, waving. The crowd cheered wildly. Turns out, they learned later, Lenny Wilkins was in the car behind them.

Janet loved Frangos. She also loved fundraising for nonprofits that helped kids, like the Wishing Star Foundation and Harrison Hospital’s Festival of Trees. Her authenticity and fearlessness were superpowers. She would cold-call anyone. Once she asked a millionaire owner of car dealerships if he’d donate a car, and he did. Another time she procured all the pieces to send a family to Disneyland with their terminally ill child.

In recent years, Janet talked a lot about when each of her children came into their lives and what her kids meant to her. Each night from bed, she looked at the picture of her four “little kids” and said a thank you. To her, children were a gift from God. To us, mom was the gift.

Janet and Shannon took care of each other for 67 years with understanding, humor and devotion. They had the rarest of relationships. Keep watch over dad, mom. We love you.

Janet is survived by her husband, Shannon Sweatte, and their large family, including: Daughter Patti (Mike) Anderson, grandchildren, Jacob (Erica) and Nick, and great grandson Arlo; Son Ron (Barb) Sweatte and Becky Hendee; Daughter Kathy (Paul) Fiascone, grandchildren Mason (Johanna), Myles, Max (Kelly), and great granddaughters Zelie and Lucy; Daughter Nancy (Marc) Hill, grandchildren Chanel and Trevon, and great granddaughters Brooklyn and Huxley; Sisters Marian (Don “Mitch”) Mitchell, Judy (John) Christensen, Susan Phillips, Gail Martin, sister-in-law Kitty Smith (brother Max passed just a few months before Janet), brother-in-law Don (Shirley) Tuttle, brothers-in-law on Shannon’s side, Roger (Joyce) Brockhoff and Jim (Carol) Wuerch – who were lifelong friends and shared pre-kid adventures like waterskiing, driving cool cars, camping and dinner parties; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. Special mention to Mikael (Jamie) Christensen, Niklas (Liv) Christensen, and Jessie (Tyler) Phillips, whom she loved like her own kids.

Janet was predeceased by parents Ralph and Evelyn Smith, sister Shirley, brother Max, brother-in-law Mitch Mitchell, Shannon’s parents Rex and Elizabeth “Betty” Sweatte, and sisters-in-law Carol Wuerch and Joyce Brockhoff.

Janet rests at Sunset Hills Memorial Park where, naturally, she made arrangements decades ago. She is interred in the Olympic View garden next to the giant flying eagle. You are welcome to visit anytime. The family thanks you for your cards, love and memories.

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