Janet was born on the Fourth of July, 1940 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her education included Will Rogers High School that is on the National Register of Schools, and the University of Arkansas where she major in mathmatics. She married Steve Wixson and they two had two children. When they moved to Birmingham, Alabama and the University of Alabam at Birmingham, and after their children were in school, she started working in the Rust Computer Center as a User Consultant and over the years rose to Director of the Coimputer Center. She later moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee as Director of Computing and retired staying in Chattanooga.