Janet Meyer

MEEKER, Colo. ? Janet ?Jan? Marie (Smith) Meyer, 74, died Sunday, April 10, 2016, in Meeker, Colorado.

Mrs. Meyer was born Oct. 31, 1941, in Bethany, Missouri, the daughter of Clifford and Ethel Smith. She married Richard L. Meyer on Jan. 20, 1962.

She graduated from Cainsville (Missouri) High School in 1960. She was an avid reader and strong in academics, basketball, and music. Her college career was started at Iowa Wesleyan College (IWC) in Mount Pleasant, and later completed at Western New Mexico University. She pursued a vocation of teaching young people in Deming, New Mexico, where she lived from 1971 to 2006, helping them learn to play the piano, enjoy reading in the children?s room of the public library, and get an education as fourth- and fifth-graders at Martin Elementary School. In 1960 at IWC, she met Richard L. Meyer, who would be her best friend for 56 years and her husband for 54 of those years. While living in the Chicago area with the family in the late 1960s, she committed her life to the Christian faith, which became her avocation until her death. She used her talents, especially on the piano, to join in congregational worship in numerous churches around southern New Mexico. While living in Alamosa from 2006 to 2013, she shared her music at assisted living facilities, and shared meals and her faith in her home with life groups from LWBF Church. Since 2013 she had shared her piano music with residents at The Wing, and as a member of the United Methodist Church had fellowshipped with the women of the UMW, which was a ?love in Christ? relationship until her death.

Surviving are her husband, Richard Meyer; one daughter, Annette Kowal and husband Tom; one son, Mark Meyer and wife Jackie; eight grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; and one brother, Charles Smith and wife Gloria.

Her parents preceded her in death.