1918
Mary
2014
Mary Louise Hicks Smith
November 3, 1918 — August 15, 2014
Mary Louise (Hicks) Smith, 95, a homemaker, passed away on August 15, 2014, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, of natural causes. She was born to Lorie Ted and Anna Lee (Offutt) Hicks of rural Kingsland, Arkansas, on November 3, 1918. She is also preceded in death by two siblings, Harold Hicks and Barbara Nell Taylor. Visitation will be held Friday, August 22, 2014 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at Benton Funeral Home in Fordyce, Arkansas. A Celebration of Life service will be held at Benton Funeral Home in Fordyce, Arkansas on Saturday, August 23, at 10:00 a.m., with interment following in the family plot at Ebenezer Cemetery.
In 1939, she married S J Smith (deceased, 1989) of Fordyce, and bore five children over the next 17 years: Dr. S J (Joe) (deceased: 2011) of Wells, NV (Jody, now of Hayden Lake, Idaho), Larry, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Sharon Sullivan, of Fort Worth, Texas (Charles), Jay, of Hurst, Texas (Gina), and Kristie Genheimer, of Mustang, Oklahoma (Steve). In addition, she is survived by subsequent generations of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.
Mary Louise was a good student, was popular, and was valedictorian of the 1935 graduating class of Kingsland High School, at age 16. She was privileged to attend Arkansas A & M in Monticello for one year – always regretting that she could not afford to stay and graduate - then took a business course by correspondence. She was a life-long learner.
As a girl on a farm, she observed life. Her later-told stories included the thrill of finding an orange in her Christmas stocking annually, of the drilled tree that her father, Ted, made one year, of studying by a coal-oil lamp, and of becoming Auntie's (Mattie Offutt) chauffeur at age 11. She relished time spent at school, or with her many girlfriends, or her many boyfriends - one of whom showed back up in recent years as a steady email correspondent.
Mary Louise was a committed and compassionate Christian, always saying that she got saved at 16. She was a beloved and respected friend, confidante and advisor, creative homemaker – renowned for her fig preserves and cornbread - and faithful wife, inveterate reader, loving and fiercely determined mother, and a witty and articulate woman who went from wagon travel to town on Saturday in her girlhood, to jet travel around the world, and from communication by letter, to the wonders of computers and email. To the end, she retained her wit and humor about the foibles of life – including being wryly amused that she had become old enough to be a shut-in.
Leaving Fordyce, she became a citizen of Pine Bluff from 1948 to 1990, where she was active in her children's education, was a church woman - once stuffing 17 children into her 1946 Buick (the "boat") to take them to VBS - and was a perpetual board member and adult Sunday school class teacher at Pine Bluff First Nazarene (which merged with Oak Park Church of the Nazarene.) After her husband's death, she left her beloved Arkansas and moved to the Oklahoma City area, joined Bethany First Church of the Nazarene, found Sunday school classes and teachers she enjoyed, made a new cadre of close friends with whom she enjoyed parties, the theater, and travel, both abroad and stateside. She became an enthusiastic 'Bench-Warmer' for the Southern Nazarene University basketball team - and a (SNU) Senior Academy member, where she made more friends and polished her writing skills, then took up the task of writing about her childhood world and other observations of her journey. From that inauspicious beginning in the tiny community of rural Kingsland, Arkansas, she developed speaking skills to the point of being a church women's conference speaker in Little Rock, at age 85, in 2004.
(Mother) was a proud and dedicated lifelong democrat, and thoughtful citizen all her voting life. She wrote persuasive letters to public officials at both high and low levels, outlining her strongly held beliefs. Not all her letters were mailed - but, sometimes, she effectively got her point across and 'got her way.'
She had the popular touch, all her life, including with her grandchildren down through all the generations whom she was privileged to know. She welcomed dozens of grandchildren, great- grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, now scattered around the US and the world. The gifts she gave to her grands were her genuine interest in them, and her shining pride in their accomplishments.
She lived her life with Southern grace and gentility, wit and creativity, and staunch resolution.
From writer, Marjorie Pizer: "The fact of death cannot destroy what has been given."
In 1939, she married S J Smith (deceased, 1989) of Fordyce, and bore five children over the next 17 years: Dr. S J (Joe) (deceased: 2011) of Wells, NV (Jody, now of Hayden Lake, Idaho), Larry, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Sharon Sullivan, of Fort Worth, Texas (Charles), Jay, of Hurst, Texas (Gina), and Kristie Genheimer, of Mustang, Oklahoma (Steve). In addition, she is survived by subsequent generations of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.
Mary Louise was a good student, was popular, and was valedictorian of the 1935 graduating class of Kingsland High School, at age 16. She was privileged to attend Arkansas A & M in Monticello for one year – always regretting that she could not afford to stay and graduate - then took a business course by correspondence. She was a life-long learner.
As a girl on a farm, she observed life. Her later-told stories included the thrill of finding an orange in her Christmas stocking annually, of the drilled tree that her father, Ted, made one year, of studying by a coal-oil lamp, and of becoming Auntie's (Mattie Offutt) chauffeur at age 11. She relished time spent at school, or with her many girlfriends, or her many boyfriends - one of whom showed back up in recent years as a steady email correspondent.
Mary Louise was a committed and compassionate Christian, always saying that she got saved at 16. She was a beloved and respected friend, confidante and advisor, creative homemaker – renowned for her fig preserves and cornbread - and faithful wife, inveterate reader, loving and fiercely determined mother, and a witty and articulate woman who went from wagon travel to town on Saturday in her girlhood, to jet travel around the world, and from communication by letter, to the wonders of computers and email. To the end, she retained her wit and humor about the foibles of life – including being wryly amused that she had become old enough to be a shut-in.
Leaving Fordyce, she became a citizen of Pine Bluff from 1948 to 1990, where she was active in her children's education, was a church woman - once stuffing 17 children into her 1946 Buick (the "boat") to take them to VBS - and was a perpetual board member and adult Sunday school class teacher at Pine Bluff First Nazarene (which merged with Oak Park Church of the Nazarene.) After her husband's death, she left her beloved Arkansas and moved to the Oklahoma City area, joined Bethany First Church of the Nazarene, found Sunday school classes and teachers she enjoyed, made a new cadre of close friends with whom she enjoyed parties, the theater, and travel, both abroad and stateside. She became an enthusiastic 'Bench-Warmer' for the Southern Nazarene University basketball team - and a (SNU) Senior Academy member, where she made more friends and polished her writing skills, then took up the task of writing about her childhood world and other observations of her journey. From that inauspicious beginning in the tiny community of rural Kingsland, Arkansas, she developed speaking skills to the point of being a church women's conference speaker in Little Rock, at age 85, in 2004.
(Mother) was a proud and dedicated lifelong democrat, and thoughtful citizen all her voting life. She wrote persuasive letters to public officials at both high and low levels, outlining her strongly held beliefs. Not all her letters were mailed - but, sometimes, she effectively got her point across and 'got her way.'
She had the popular touch, all her life, including with her grandchildren down through all the generations whom she was privileged to know. She welcomed dozens of grandchildren, great- grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, now scattered around the US and the world. The gifts she gave to her grands were her genuine interest in them, and her shining pride in their accomplishments.
She lived her life with Southern grace and gentility, wit and creativity, and staunch resolution.
From writer, Marjorie Pizer: "The fact of death cannot destroy what has been given."
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