Janice Rae Huff

Janice was born in Dayton, Ohio on May 2, 1944 where she attended Shiloh Church, Shiloh Elementary School, Meadowdale High School and received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Education from the University of Dayton.

She was preceded in death by infant daughter Pamela Marie Huff, parents John Richard (Dick) and Miriam Young, in-laws Fred and Pauline Huff, and brothers-in-law Frank Ruse and Tom Huff.

Janice is survived by her beloved and devoted husband of 56 years, Fred Huff, whom she first met in Kindergarten; loving sisters Lois Ruse and Carma (Mark) Dougherty and sister-in-law Charlene Huff; much loved nieces and nephews Pattie (Ron) McCroson, Randy (Jennifer) Glasgow, Karen (Mike) Weaver, Tom (Tracie) Huff, Elizabeth Huff, Michelle Dougherty, and great and great, great nieces and nephews; several special cousins in Ohio and Florida, including her “twin” Bill Stephenson, with whom she shared many childhood adventures; and her special “Texas family” Jerry, Mandy, Paisley, Maycee and Kannon Keese. She will be dearly missed also by her OPT water aerobics friends, special church friends, teaching colleagues, and lifelong school friends.

After moving to Texas in 1979, Janice worked briefly at MWL Tool Company in Odessa, but teaching was her true calling. She loved teaching her “kiddos”, first as a Business Teacher at high schools in Germantown and Brookville, Ohio, then at her alma mater, University of Dayton, where she became Chair of the Executive Secretarial Department, and finally at Permian High School in Odessa, where she became Chair of their Business Department. Even after retiring, she volunteered with a special math program, where grade school children learned about math while making pizzas. She was devoted to her students as if they were her own children, felt most proud and successful when she had made a difference in their lives, and was often thought of and officially voted a “favorite teacher.”

Janice was a true force of nature, staying strong through many trials over the years until the very end, always with her faith, kindness and generosity intact and with the attitude “You can choose to be bitter, or you can choose to be better; I choose better.” We know she is now in Heaven, reunited with her precious Pamela, teaching some new “kiddos”, and doing her very best to make it an even kinder place to be.

The family will receive friends for visitation on Friday, February 25, 2022 from 10:00 -11:00 a.m., prior to a Memorial Service at 11:00 a.m., at Northside Baptist Church, in Odessa, led by her beloved pastor, Clydel Chapman.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Janice’s memory to the American Heart Association or the Muscular Dystrophy Association.