Janet Blades Marshall

Janet Blades Marshall was born Janet Louise Blades in St. Louis, Missouri to Jack and Millie Blades on October 9, 1943. Janet’s father’s career in the defense industry led to Jack becoming a major player in the development of the Minuteman Missile defense system. This meant the young family, which now included younger sister Jackie, would move from St. Louis, to Ladue, MO and eventually Washington D.C. Eventually Jack’s business endeavors and friendship with golfer Ben Hogan brought the family (which now included youngest sister Judy) to Ft. Worth Texas, where he created the Ben Hogan brand of golf equipment for AMF SportingGoods. In Ft. Worth, Janet became a member of the Junior League and other Society groups throughout her teenage years, and eventually met her future husband, Michael Slack.

Upon graduation from Paschal High School, Janet attended East Texas State University, where she was a member of Angel Flight and the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Janet and Mike were married in 1963 in Ft. Worth, where they lived and started a family with their two children, older son Michael Jr. and younger son Holt. Upon relocating to Pleasant Grove in Dallas in 1972, Janet continued being a homemaker and mother, involved PTA member, Den mother to her boys Cub Scout Pack, costume fabricator for school plays, baker for school fund raisers, and full-time cheerleader for Mike Jr. and Holt’s numerous baseball, football, and soccer teams.

As the years passed, Janet and the boys moved from Dallas to Plano, where she entered the work force and eventually found her home in the financial world of stocks and bonds. Beginning at Paine Webber, Janet met lifelong friends and work partners as she moved on to Prudential Bache and soon met her future husband Jack Marshall through friends. Through this new blending of the Slack and Marshall families, Jack introduced Janet to her final two children - daughter Meredith and son Jack III, known as “Trey”. Janet loved this new life and managed her work/life balance with great weekends with friends at Lake Texoma, spending time with the family eating a homemade meal, or splurging for a night of Mexican food. During this time, Janet’s children grew up, went to college or into the work force, got married and eventually converted “Mom” into a “Mimi” with the births of her first grandchildren, Jordan and Kyle.

Janet and Jack were together for 21 years, from 1979 until the year 2000 when they finally made it official and got married in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sadly, Jack passed unexpectedly just 4 years after the wedding, devastating Janet and inspiring her to fully become “Mimi” by throwing herself into her loves - working in her garden and baking sweets for the grandchildren. Later, retirement allowed Mimi to spend unlimited time with mulch in her hands or visiting her very large extended family, which included her four children, their families, and an eventual total of 11 grandchildren.

Janet brought happiness and joy into the lives of anyone and everyone she met, from childhood friends to nurses at her doctors office, and from close confidants to the person at the drive thru window. Janet never met a stranger. Janet passed peacefully in her sleep on March 1, 2026 at the young age of 82, but her light and legacy will live on through the family she created and all of the people that she touched through the years.

Janet is survived by her sisters Jackie Arwine and Judy Blades. Her children Mike Jr. and wife Amor Slack, Holt and wife Jennifer Slack, Meredith and husband James McSpadden, and Jack III and wife Jillian Marshall. And her 11 grandchildren Jordan Slack, Kyle Slack, Jordan Horton and husband Ryan Karnes, Ariane Horton and fiancee James Perla, Ellie and husband Sam Langenbahn, Luke McSpadden, Oliver McSpadden, Jack Marshall IV, Presley Marshall, Memphis Marshall, and Mayes Marshall. Janet also leaves behind hundreds of neighbors, coworkers, friends, and acquaintances, all of whom she left by saying "bye bye" and flashing her eternal smile.