1954Andy P From Janet (Howard) and Roger Smedley:
Front Row (Left to right): Jayne Howard Farr, Janet Howard Smedley, John Miller Howard
Back Row: Jeannetta Thiriot Peterson, Vonnie Gill Carter, Alice Ann Thiriot Waite
Picture circa 1954
About a month before Jeannetta went in the hospital, we were talking on the telephone together reminiscing about the past. She remembered during World War II that each American was given ration coupons for things such as meat, tires, gas, food, cheese and other items. The Thiriots were diligent in saving up their coupons for gas by walking to school, work, church, friends’ homes, and everywhere they went to save up enough gas coupons to go to Salt Lake which they all looked forward to. They drove from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City for General Conference twice a year and stayed with us! They would get in the car and say, “Is it worth it?” And their Dad would say, “It’s worth it because we are going to see family!”
Aunt Ellen and Uncle Joe took Jayne (5) and me (3) home to Las Vegas to live with them when our mother, Agnes, went to work while our father was ill. Jeannetta was at BYU in Provo and would often take the bus to Salt Lake on weekends to spend it with my mother and brothers, Paul and John. Jeannetta would say, ”We were just ‘trading beds’ for a while.” We lived in Las Vegas from September to December for two years, 1957 and 1958. The Thiriot’s home was our home and our home was her home. We both shared our families.
After Jeannetta and Jan were married, they moved to the Avenues by our house with their baby, Todd. Jayne and I were probably 10 and 8 and would often babysit and sometimes even sleep over. Jeannetta said she wanted to live close to family. We were her family!
After we were married, Roger and I had a military obligation in Augusta, Georgia. Afterward, we saw Church and other historical sites on the East coast. However, we knew we must go see Jeannetta because she lived in the East somewhere. She really did...Buffalo, New York! So we took extra days and made plans to go and see Jeannetta because she was family! I don’t remember whose beds we slept in, but she made us feel welcome, and “Of course, we could stay there,” and “It was no problem at all”, because we were family!
When Jeannetta moved back to Utah, it just seemed right that she was closer to home, at least for all of us!
We are so thankful for Jeannetta and appreciate her lifetime of service. We will miss her laugh, her boxes of books, her advice, her knowledge, and everything that made her so special and unique. We are thankful how she brought people together and made us family! We will truly miss her, but we know it is only temporary.
