Janet Atlas

1930 - 2017

Janet Atlas

Asheville - Janet Atlas passed from this earth to be with our heavenly father at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at age 86.

Born in Milwaukee (Whitefish Bay), Wisconsin to Leo Radoff and Isabel Jasculca, an only child in 1930, Janet and her parents joined earlier Miami settlers and Janet's cousin Baron De Hirsch Meyer in 1936 where her father built The White House Hotel at 1451 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach. Janet attended North Beach elementary school, Miami Beach Senior High and the Lear School where she was Homecoming Queen along with her boyfriend Ken Davis, Homecoming King. Janet went to summer camp in northern Wisconsin from age 5 til marriage at age 19 and was always the life of the party.

After WW 2 she met thru mutual friends Fred Atlas who was attending the University of Miami business school who she married January 1950 after one year of college at UM. After a honeymoon to Key West and Mexico City and a short time in NYC with Fred, they relocated to San Marino Island Miami Beach, Fred became GM of patriarch Leo's White House Hotel for their 16 years of marriage. Janet and Fred led a blessed life at a very young age, traveling, playing, driving fast cars, and eventually having 2 children, Randall (wife Trish) and Russell (partner Andrew) both who grew and prospered in their individual ways.

A born leader, Janet divorced Fred in 1965, and within a few short years Janet got her real estate license and became a very successful commercial broker in the Design District and what is now known as Wynwood in a male dominated field and location. Later in life Janet and son Rusty formed Atlas Realty which became very successful in the early days of the Miami luxury real estate market and subsequently worked with Constructa selling out condominiums at 1500 Ocean Drive, coincidentally the former Jefferson Hotel her father owned during WW 2. Janet was also President of Randalls' Atlas Safety and Security Design. Janet loved to travel, dress, and dine and learned an amazing ability to earn the highest wine connoisseur recognition Dame de la Chaine, Chaine De Rotisseurs in 1967.

In 2014 Janet relocated to Asheville, NC where she had been coming since the early 1950's with closest friends Lynn and Louis Wolfson of Beaver Dam whose family founded current day WLOS. Janet on her mothers side has a large family throughout Chicago and Milwaukee (Jasculca). Her final days were spent peacefully in Asheville as she battled Dementia valiantly as her loving caregivers will attest. She will be missed but not forgotten, a force rarely seen in women of her era who was respected and admired throughout her life. May she live on in our hearts for eternity.

Services to be held at Groce Funeral Home, 856 Tunnel Road, Asheville, NC on Saturday, January 2017, at 2:00 PM, with Chaplain Cindy Coleman officiating. Interment will follow at Green Hills Cemetery, 25 New Leicester Hwy, Asheville NC. Family welcomes friends to join in a celebration of good food and drinks after interment at the Country Club of Asheville, 160 Windsor Rd. from 4-7:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: Brother Wolf Animal Rescue, PO Box 8195, Asheville, NC 28814; Green Hills Cemetery, 25 New Leicester Hwy, Asheville, NC 28806; WNCAP, PO Box 2411, Asheville, NC 28802; or to Care Resources, 3510 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL 33137.

The online register is available at www.grocefuneralhome.com.