Janice Fay Snelling, 78

Funeral services for Janice Fay Snelling, 78, of Gainesville, were held Aug. 6, 2022 in the Clinkingbeard Funeral Home chapel in Gainesville with Dale Roberts officiating. Burial was at the Lilly Ridge Cemetery. 

Janice died Aug. 2, at Baxter Health in Mountain Home, Arkansas. She was born on April 15, 1944, in Nottinghill to Merle and Hester (McDaniel) Hesterlee.

She worked at a host of jobs in her younger years beginning at Lister Drug Store and in the Ozark County courthouse as a secretary for Dallas Herd.  She moved from Gainesville to St. Louis and then to Springfield, always living near her sister she’s always been very close to, Joyce Kaufman, but she loved the rural country life and made Gainesville her home.

After selling Aromatic Cedar Products, Inc., a business she co-owned, she settled into retirement with her first priority always being her family, which was her entire world. She loved spending as much time as possible with her daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Living in the Ozarks allowed her to enjoy nature and wildlife. She has always been an animal lover, and she kept the birds, squirrels and raccoons well-fed around her house. She had a green-thumb and had many plants and flowers she tended to.

Janice was always there for anyone who needed anything. She never met a stranger and loved to visit with everyone.  She had a servant’s heart, and it made her so happy to help others. She had the sweetest, purest and most loving and compassionate soul. God blessed her family, friends and loved ones with this beautiful woman in their lives, and she has impacted everyone she has ever met in some way or another. She will be dearly missed in our lives every day. 

Janice is survived by her only daughter, Jana Crisp and her husband Monty; two grandchildren: Jamon Crisp and Makinzi Highfill and her husband Dylan; step-grandson Montana Crisp and his wife Katie; and two great-grandchildren: Kinlan and Lumen Highfill; one brother, Dexter Hesterlee; one sister, Joyce Kaufman; one very special friend of many years, Alan Smith; and many nieces and nephews and a host of other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents Merle and Hester Hesterlee, her sister Shirley Lane and her husband Warren Snelling and her grandson Jaxon Reese Crisp.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Humane Society of North Central Arkansas, 2656 Hwy. 201 North, Mountain Home, Arkansas 72653; phone number: (870) 425-9221. 

Arrangements are under the direction of Clinkingbeard Funeral Home of Gainesville. 

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

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