Janet Roan Wade

Janet, 94, of Fort Walton Beach, FL, passed on, Wednesday May 29th, 2024. Janet grew up in Cincinnati, OH and later moved to Sarasota, FL where she met her first husband and had her two children Jody(Phoenix) and Michael. Janet was a founder of the local Fort Walton Beach Chapter of the American Society of Women Accountants (ASWA), whose name changed to the Accounting & Financial Women Alliance (AFWA) in the early 1980’s. She was always enthusiastic about helping others in her community and took great joy in hosting gatherings at her beautiful home. Janet was strong and gracious and created a home that welcomed you with joy and laughter. She would begin each festive occasion with a toast, she would raise her glass and say “To Love.” Janet experienced the most meaningful years of her career at Creel, Bryan & Gallagher, CPAs where she was passionate about helping people learn and grow in their careers. Janet was preceded in death by many of her loved ones, two husbands, both of her daughters, Phoenix and Libby, her sister Margie and her brother Robert, her grandson Nicholas and her grandson Adam as well as many of her dear friends and elders. She is survived by her son Michael, many of her grandchildren, and great grandchildren as well as her sisters MaryEllen, and Joan and her brother Tom as well as their spouses whom she loved like sisters and brothers. Interment will occur at Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola where she will be reunited with her beloved second husband Bo. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to AFWA, especially to the The Mary Feeney Bonawitz PhD Scholarship.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,

spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts

for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.

I stand and watch her until; at length, she hangs like a speck

of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”Gone where? Gone from

my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,

hull and spar as she was when she left my side.

And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me — not in her. And, just at the moment when

someone says, “There, she is gone,”

there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices

ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”

-Gone From My Sight by Henry Van Dyke