Janet Sachs McCormack

Janet (Denny) Sachs McCormack passed away on March 21, 2026, at her home in Dallas, surrounded by her loving family. She was 97. She is remembered by her children as a strong, beautiful, nurturing and generous mother. Family was the keystone of her life, and she often said her greatest joy was that her children enjoyed long, happy marriages. She was born in Chicago on July 16, 1928, the only child of doting parents Joseph Hale and Gladys (Gehlert) Denny. The family moved to the rural village of Union, Ill., in the depths of the Great Depression, and 70 years later, she still remembered the bitter cold of her first winter in an ancient, unheated farmhouse. On that farm, she learned responsibility from an early age, caring for her horse, Babe --- and 300 chickens.

Janet takes with her memories of an America long passed: of a six-year-old, left safely at a downtown Chicago theater while her parents did the week’s shopping; of life without a phone or indoor plumbing; of traveling alone on a train to San Antonio and of a kindly stranger, a black lady, who watched over her until, bewilderingly, they were forcibly separated after the train crossed into the segregated south; of shucking corn in the fields around Union for 50 cents an hour and harvesting wild asparagus along the cemetery fence; of a nation united after Pearl Harbor by a common purpose; of Texas before air conditioning; of the tragic day in 1963 when she had had a seat at the Trade Mart “so close I could have reached forward and touched President Kennedy’s hair,” had he arrived for his scheduled luncheon.

She was blessed with a vivacious, upbeat personality, and, as she always said, a lot of luck. From her first job, performing at a country playhouse as a teenager, to her last as director of marketing for dinnerware maker Fitz and Floyd Inc., there were many happy coincidences paving the way to her next milestone.

Janet was first runner-up in the 1946 Miss Chicago beauty contest, losing a trip to Atlantic City to Cloris Leachman. Next year, she ditched the cold and Chicago politics and moved to Dallas. The city felt right. Serendipity landed her modeling jobs at the Sanger Bros. and A. Harris department stores. That exposure led to her meeting the man who would become her first husband, Dallas businessman Byron Sachs. The couple married in 1949 and had three children. In the early years of motherhood Janet did volunteer work at home, typing books into Braille. When the kids got bigger, Janet built the largest Viviane Woodard Cosmetics franchise in Texas, with a micro-mini retail shop at Preston Royal in the late ‘60s.

Janet flew the Stars and Stripes outside her door year-round. She was a Daughter of the American Revolution, who read the biographies of the US presidents in chronological order, and kept in her desk a small booklet containing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. She voted. She enjoyed traveling, especially by boat, and once circumnavigated by Pan Am 747. She attended Temple Emanu-El and was a member of the National Council of Jewish Women for over 50 years.

Janet began playing bridge with her mom as a child. She was an avid player and a “Gold Life Master,” who more than once found herself engaged in bidding wars with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

In 1991, Janet married her last and best bridge partner, John “Jack” McCormack, corporate counsel for Texas Instruments. At the wedding reception, she told well-wishers characteristically that one of the great things about marrying Jack was getting five more wonderful children.

Her favorite song was Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” Of course, because that is how Janet did it --- with style, grace, and an abundance of love.

She is greatly missed.

Janet was predeceased by her husbands and is survived by her children Byron and Joseph Sachs, and Becky (Sachs) Brown, all of Dallas; Cathy (McCormack) Maher, and Kevin, Brien, and Mark McCormack; by her grandchildren Joseph and Zachary Sachs, Rebecca (Brown) Steggers, and Alex McCormack; and by her son- and daughters-in-law Barry Brown, Rosa Sachs, and Francine Sachs.

Janet was buried with Jack at the DFW National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that friends donate to their favorite charity. The family also wishes to thank Sheila Phillips and her team for their compassionate care.

There is one more cherished memory: In the ‘30s, having no phone, family meetups in Chicago were coordinated by post. Janet, maybe 10, is to deliver her mom’s letter to the mail train during its whistle stop in Union. But when she arrives the train is pulling away from the station and as she runs flat out to catch it, the crewmen holler like they are at a racetrack, “Come on, Blondie! Come on, Blondie!”

Janet always smiled when she thought of those men cheering on that little girl.

Now, Jannie, go: for that is your beloved husband and your dear parents who are calling out to you: “Come on, Blondie! Come on, Blondie!”