Janet C. Schenker

Janet C. Schenker passed away in Austin, Texas, on January 23, 2026, at the age of 74, after an extended battle with dementia. Janet was a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and sister. She was the heart of her family and was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 47 years, Jeffrey M. Schenker. Janet is survived by her two children and their families: son Jason Schenker and his wife, Ashley, of Austin, Texas, and daughter Sarah Gousie, her husband, Dana, and their son, Jeffrey, of Smithfield, Rhode Island. Janet is also survived by her beloved brother, George Cyr of Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Janet was the daughter of the late George and Pauline Cyr of New Hyde Park, New York. Janet loved her parents and was especially close with her mother, Pauline, who died of brain cancer in 1983. Her father died about a year later. Janet grew up on Long Island. In 1964, Janet's parents told her she was too young to go to JFK Airport when the Beatles landed there. She wished they would have let her go. Janet worked briefly as a secretary in Manhattan before becoming a stewardess for American Airlines at the height of airline glamour in the early 1970s. She attended Stewardess College in Dallas, Texas, and graduated in 1972. Carrying some of that glamour throughout her life, Janet always had kind words about the appearance and attire of the people around her. Janet loved her husband, Jeffrey, very deeply. They were very sweet together and provided their children with a tremendously loving home. Less than a year after meeting on a blind date, they married in 1973. In 1981, Janet and her family moved to Somerset, Massachusetts, where she lived until her husband died 40 years later, in 2021, when she entered a memory care facility close to her son and his wife in Austin, Texas. As a young mother, Janet had a small craft business called "Happy Socks," where she made and sold cute sock animals, including sock monkeys. She loved making crafts. She also worked in her husband's accounting business. Janet loved traveling, including on her honeymoon to Acapulco, on a cruise to Alaska with her husband, to Las Vegas with her husband, on Caribbean cruises with her family, with her daughter to Paris, and with her son on trips to various European destinations, including Amsterdam, Delft, Budapest, Frankfurt, and Freiburg im Breisgau. She also frequently traveled with her son to Vienna, Austria, where she attended numerous OPEC meetings as an analyst. Janet maintained a beautiful garden, loved flowers, and often told her family to "put your nose in a rose." She often went to the Boston Flower Show, and her favorite trip with her son was to see the tulips at Keukenhof in the Netherlands. After visiting windmills at Zaanse Schans, Janet declined the offer to take the wheel and steer a Dutch canal boat. She wished she had taken the wheel. Janet was the best mom anyone could ever ask for. She dedicated her entire life to raising and caring for her children. She always had kind words of love and support for her children, and she was their greatest cheerleader, offering emotional support and showering them with generous, frequent praise. Janet deeply loved her grandson, Jeffrey Gousie, and relished being his grandma. The weekly video calls with him and her daughter were a major highlight of her existence after moving to Texas. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the American Cancer Society in Janet's memory to honor her mother, Pauline. A graveside service will held at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, January 26, 2026 at Austin Memorial Park in Austin, Texas.

Janet C. Schenker

November 10, 1951 - January 23, 2026