Janice Louise (Wallace) Richardson

Obituary of Janice L. Richardson

July 17, 1932 – May 20, 2022

Janice L. Richardson was born in Des Moines, Iowa on July 17, 1932, the first of four children of Herman and Dorothy Wallace. As a child, Janice was outgoing, athletic, and musically talented, and played tennis, piano, and the cello. As a teenager, she was starting guard for her state championship high school girls’ basketball team and part of an award-winning jump rope team at the Iowa State Fair.

Janice was the first person in her family to attend college, enrolling at the historically black Fisk University, where she became a proud member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority. She returned home after two years to finish her degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of Iowa, where she was the only African American graduate of the class of 1954.

After college, Janice worked as an occupational therapist for Veterans Administration hospitals, eventually transferring to the Cleveland, Ohio VA. In Cleveland, she met the man who would become her husband, Obie Richardson, whom she married in 1963. From their union, they had two daughters, Lisa and Amy, and one son, Lee. Janice became a widow and single mother when she lost her husband Obie to cancer in 1982.

Janice left her work in occupational therapy to be a stay-at-home mom when her children were young, later returning to work as the Supervisor of Medical Records for the Hough-Norwood Family Health Care Center. She worked at Hough-Norwood for more than 30 years, retiring in 2009.

After her children were grown, Janice was able to pursue her lifelong dream of traveling. With family, friends, or as part of tour groups, she visited most of the continental United States and Hawaii. She also traveled to numerous international locales, including London, Paris, Spain, Morocco, the Dominican Republic, and China.

Throughout her life, Janice was active, social, and involved. She was a long-time member of Mt. Zion Congregational Church, where she served as a deacon for many years, as well as a member of TMTM (The More, The Merrier) Junior women’s fellowship. For decades, she was part of two different bridge clubs that met every other week for fiercely competitive card playing. She was active in her local Retired AKA sorority chapter and in the Gazelles social club. She loved to attend lectures, book readings, and exercise classes. In 2012, she and her good friend Iris Norman conceived the group Club 32, recruiting 13 others who were also born in 1932 to plan a huge 80th birthday bash together, celebrating “1200 years of life worth living.”

Janice was preceded in death by her husband Obie; her parents Herman and Dorothy; and her brothers Herman and Thomas. She is survived by her sister and brother-in-law, Pamela and John Addison; her children, Lisa Richardson, Amy Allison, and Lee Richardson; her granddaughters, Aryana Richardson and Naomi Allison; her sisters-in-law, Vivian Smith and Veronica Richardson; her brother-in-law, Carl Smith; her nieces and nephews, Cedric Smith, Renee Smith-Murphy, Kevin Smith, Kimberly LeVeaux, Dennis Wallace, Donald Richardson, Nicole Richardson, Alexandra Reece, Peter Wallace, Hilary Wallace, Bishara Addison, and Asim Addison; and by a host of other wonderful relatives and friends.

Livestream Zoom Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85784768566?pwd=U2NrdUJ6ZjZKSjlEOUtuUE4wRVdMUT09#success

Meeting ID: 857 8476 8566
Passcode:  728518

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