Ernie Smith and his wife Janet—
“She went home with a smile on her face.”
That is how veteran crooner Ernie Smith described his wife’s last moments. Smith confirmed that Janet, his long-time partner, died yesterday after a long illness.
“I am trying my best to make it through,” a distraught-sounding Smith told the Jamaica Observer. “I have been warned by the people around me that I need to eat and take my tablets in order to stay alive at 75.”
Entertainment insiders describe Janet Smith as the force behind the management of her husband’s career for a number of years. This was a point Smith affirmed during during the interview.
“She was such an important part of me and my career. Oh, yes, so integral.”
The couple has six children between them, whom Smith noted are all grown, but are also feeling the loss, as well as members of the immediate and extended family.
No funeral arrangements have yet been made for Janet Smith who had battled health complications a few years ago and sought treatment in Cuba and the United States. Ernie Smith first tasted chart success came in the late 1960s and made a name for himself with songs including Bend Down, Ride On Sammy, One Dream, Duppy Or Gunman, and Pitta Patta. In 1972, he won the Yamaha Music Festival in Japan with Life Is Just For Living,a song originally written for a Red Stripe commercial. He would later have a series of gospel hits including I For Jesus.
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