Janet Livesay Brackeen
January 27, 2023
Janet Ellen Livesay Brackeen, perpetually age 36 but legally 70 (shhh!), passed away on January 27 following an unexpected and tragic accident. Born in Tennessee, she graduated from Karns High School early and matriculated at University of Tennessee, Knoxville; where she was a member of the Pride of the Southland Marching Band and received a flute scholarship before completing graduate studies at the College of William and Mary. From there, she lived and traveled all over the world for decades.
Glamorous, brilliant, beautiful, elegant, tough, and with a flair for the dramatic, Janet was the center of attention of every room she entered. She was equally as charming as she was infuriating, with a particular talent for wrapping men around her little finger. Janet never saw an opportunity she didn’t take, and always brought a touch of “extra” to everything she did - from inviting every elementary-aged child in town to her daughter’s sixth birthday party and and turning it into a carnival complete with a cake walk (with at least 40 prize cakes), to wrapping packages she was shipping with at least three full rolls of packing tape so that there wasn’t a centimeter of the box exposed and they were nearly impossible to open, to painting her house hot pink and teal, to teaching her Pekingese dogs to come when she sang “Do You Know the Muffin Man?”.
She had a sharp, sarcastic, often dark sense of humor and an unforgettable laugh.
She was the center of an international conspiracy theory, the subject of at least one major investigation, and one of the most enigmatic and complicated women you’d ever meet. Her life read like a series of books, with friends in the highest and lowest of places, intrigue, and always more questions than answers. Married three times, and leaving behind a wake of other men who would swear she was their soulmate, she was on a business trip for IBM in the early 80s when a man switched his first class ticket to coach in order to sit across the aisle from her. By the end of that flight, she was attending a black tie event with him; by the end of the weekend she’d decided to marry him - not understanding why her best friend (who just so happened to be her husband at the time) wasn’t absolutely thrilled for her. She did marry him, and had almost ten incredible years with him before his death, from which she never fully rebounded.
She was a teacher, one of the first female executives at IBM, a model, and the most unconventional, fun, exciting, and challenging mother who has ever graced this Earth. She cared deeply for animals, often nursing injured birds or frogs she’d find in her yard, and had a menagerie of dogs, birds, fish, and frogs whom she doted on and spoiled.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Bertie and Robert Livesay; brother, William Livesay; husband, Richard Brackeen; sister, Vicki Livesay-Rountree; and cherished friends, Gale and Warren Beery.
She leaves behind a devastated and heartbroken daughter, her only child, Chyna Brackeen; son-in-law Darrien Thomson; grandson Hayden Brackeen, of whom she was so proud and adored so much; nieces Lindsay Rountree (MB Finney) and Kelli Rountree; and cherished great-nephews Kyree and Karter Rountree and Keelan Blair; special friends Linda Knapp, Catherine Lira, Lennis Bearden, Khalils Khan, and countless others whose lives she touched.
In accordance with her wishes, she will be cremated with other arrangements to be determined.
In lieu of flowers, live like Janet: add accessories (never edit); embrace big hair; scream out loud at scary movies … even in the theater; spoil your pets and the people you love; be a little (or a lot) extra; and if you like it, buy it.
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