JANET ARLENE SMITH 

 JANET ARLENE SMITH 

Janet Arlene Smith, 82, passed away on August 3, 2024, at UnityPoint Iowa Methodist Medical Center – Des Moines. 

She was born September 3, 1941, on the family home in Edina, Missouri to Otho “Bill” and Lavon (Pruett) Doss. 

After graduating from Edina High School in 1959, she moved to Des Moines, IA where she attended Capital City Commercial College and successfully graduated. From there, she took employment at Bankers Life Co., where she met Larry Smith, whom she married in 1961, and to that union, daughter, Denise was born in 1962. 

Janet was a homemaker for the first several years of their marriage but went on to work for Iowa Grain and Feed, Iowa Title and retired in 1998 from the Polk County Recorder’s Office. She loved to garden and read but her favorite hobby was baking. She loved to make cookies and Scotcharoos. If you were a recipient, you were loved. 

Janet and Larry were blessed to have a second home in Yuma, AZ, where they have both been snowbirds since 2005. She loved her time in Arizona but couldn’t wait to get home in the Spring when she could spend time, shop, and spoil her daughter. 

Janet is survived by her husband, Larry; daughter, Denise Hart (favorite son-in-law, Jim); brother Earl (Pat) Doss of Yuma, AZ; sister, Joyce Newkirk of Fresno, CA; and several cousins, nieces and nephews. And we can’t forget dog son, Finnegan and grand dog, Karma. 

She is preceded in death by her parents, brother’s Gerald and Larry Doss. 

Memorial contributions may be directed to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa. 

Celebration of life will be at 11:00 a.m. Friday, September 20, 2024, at the Lutheran Church of Hope 925 Jordan Creek Parkway, West Des Moines, Iowa 50266.