Janis Ann Smith

Janis was born the 22nd of August, 1962 in Los Angeles, California. She moved to the East as a child and grew up in the Floral Park area of Queens, New York. Janis attended St. John’s University where she earned her bachelor degree in marketing. Later she moved to Manhattan where she worked in the field of market research while earning her graduate degree at Fordham University with a Master in Business Administration.

Janis married Arthur L. Smith in 1990 and spent many enjoyable years living in Fairfield County Connecticut. Janis moved to Houston in 1998 and became an active volunteer in the Memorial Villages schools, at The Junior League of Houston and the non-profits Dress for Success Houston and the Texans Can Academies where she served as Chair of the Houston Can Academy Development Council.

Her friends remember Janis as an exceptional chef who excelled in the kitchen and as a hostess. As a volunteer Janis had special interest and enthusiasm for the Spring Branch Education Foundation. The world will greatly miss her laughter, kindness and generosity.

Janis is predeceased by her father Charles J. Laidlaw of Newcastle, Maine and her stepson, Dustin A. Smith of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She will be dearly missed by her daughter, Allison Smith Aubel (husband Eric R. Aubel) and son, Roy Michael Smith. She is beloved and is additionally missed by Carl Robbins, Jr., Lisa Marie Robbins and is deeply mourned by Carl Robbins, Sr., her loving and cherished companion of recent years. Janis will be fondly remembered by the many friends she made with ease in New York, Connecticut and Texas throughout her lifetime. Janis is also survived by her mother, Joan V. Laidlaw of Floral Park, New York, her three sisters, Lisa Kelly, Deena Parsolano, Nancy Dufett and brother, Charles J. Laidlaw. She will be fondly remembered by her stepdaughter, Erin Smith Ahrens and among her many loving nieces and nephews, Brendan Varady, Peter Kelly, Matthew Kelly, Alexis Kelly, Ashlie Duffett and John Duffett.

Friends are cordially invited to gather with the family to share remembrances of Janis from one o’clock until three o’clock in the afternoon on Monday, the 8th of January 2018, in the grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston, where the memorial service is to commence at three o’clock in the adjacent Jasek Chapel.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in Janis’ name be directed to the Spring Branch Education Foundation, 955 Campbell Road, Houston, Texas 77024 or by visiting www.springbranchisd.com/sbef.