Janice Frazier, 86

Janice B. Frazier, 86, of Tuscumbia, Missouri, died peacefully at her home on April 7, 2020. A private burial was held in Jackson Cemetery near Ulman. 

She was born Sept. 24, 1933, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the daughter of George Harold and Katherine Beazell Bird Simkins. She grew up in northwest Arkansas and graduated from Rogers High School in 1951. She graduated in 1955 from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture-home economics.

She moved to Gainesville when she accepted a position as area home economist with the University of Missouri Extension Service. In that capacity, “Miss Janice” served Douglas, Ozark and Wright counties in a variety of roles, everything from 4-H groups and women’s clubs to Dairy Days and weekly feeder pig auctions. 

In 1960, she married Hardy Jefferson Frazier, moved to Noble, and began teaching grades 1-8 in the one-room Noble School. When Ozark County consolidated its rural schools, the Noble School was closed, and Mrs. Frazier began teaching at Thornfield Elementary School. She retired in 1996, having taught a total of 33 years in the schools of Ozark County.

Mrs. Frazier moved from Noble to Sundown in the early 1990s, then to Jefferson City after her retirement and eventually to Tuscumbia. She was a member of the Fairgrounds Road Church of Christ.

Survivors include her four daughters, Kathy Frazier and husband Alan Walton of Tuscumbia, Emily Towne and husband Brian of Russellville, Sarah Jordan and husband Neal of O’Fallon, and Sanny Frazier of Jefferson City; four grandchildren: Daniel Jordan and wife Christie, Tara Werdehausen and husband Brandon, Henry Towne and Jacob Cook; one great-grandson, Logan Werdehausen; and one sister-in-law, Alice Ann Simkins.

She was preceded in death by her former husband, Jeff Frazier; her twin sister, Mary Anne Deffenderfer; her brother, George Simkins, and eight half siblings: Helen Uher, Dolly Freeman, Nellie Hawkins, Clara Shearn, Alice Bell, Paul Simkins, Harold Simkins, and Donald Simkins.

Arrangements by Phillips Funeral Home, Eldon.

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423