Miles Pierre
December 8th, 2025
Janay “J Smiles” Smith has spent much of her life juggling three things at once, balancing careers, caregiving, comedy, and the weight of a legacy built long before she was born. From Montgomery, Alabama, where she grew up an only child in a Catholic household, to Howard University in Washington, D.C, where she became a mechanical engineer. Smith never imagined she would one day be the owner of “the world’s largest private collection of sporting news,” as she puts it. But destiny has a way of rerouting even the most carefully planned paths.
Her father, the late attorney Jock Michael Smith, was a giant both in the courtroom and at home. Known nationally for record-breaking legal victories and his partnership with the incomparable Johnnie Cochran, he also spent nights and weekends building a museum-worthy collection of sports history.
“My dad believed that sports is a microcosm of society that we can all learn from, grow, and become better humans if we look at what sports and competition allow us to do,” says Smith. “It’s a philosophy that shaped not only the collection’s purpose, but her own understanding of its significance.”
Her father’s tragic and sudden death in 2012 would soon mark the beginning of an unexpected calling. Janay never anticipated becoming the guardian of the collection, not as a teenager or in even in her twenties. Only in her thirties did she begin to recognize its gravity.
“Once it became very clear that it actually was the most resourceful, valuable asset in the family,” says Smith. “That’s when my dad and I started talking about how we can take it to the world and share it more.”
But inheriting a legacy is not the same as living it. After her mother was diagnosed with two forms of dementia only months after her father passed, Janay’s life shifted dramatically. Responsibilities soon included caring for her mother full-time, managing her father’s law firm, handling her mother’s accounting firm, and safeguarding the collection. Comedy entered the picture unexpectedly, born not from ambition but from survival and desperation. A six-week stand-up class became an emotional outlet during her hardest years.
“By the second class, I was madly in love with the process of creating jokes,” says Smith. It soon became yet another layer of her identity, J. Smiles, the comedian-podcaster who champions caregivers through humor and truth.
Balancing these worlds as an engineer, lawyer, designer, philanthropist, caregiver, comedian, and curator requires a quiet strength. Smith guards that strength by moving intentionally, often privately. “I believe that continuing my father’s legacy is louder when I do most of it in private,” she says. “Legacy is very personal and very emotional.”
Still, Janay Smith’s dreams are far from silent. She envisions the Jock Michael Smith Collection touring all six developed continents and inspiring global audiences through documentaries, partnerships, and comedy specials. Above all, she carries her father’s spirit of tenacity.
“I don’t care if nobody’s done it before,” Smith declares. “I can do it because my daddy did it. My mama did it.” And with every step forward, she continues the legacy boldly, quietly, completely.