Marcia Smith

Marcia Lines Smith was born June 1, 1937 in New Haven, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Evelyn Lines and Fred Lines. She had a brother named William Lines. She married John O’Hara Smith and is survived by her two children, Dana O’Hara Smith and Jason O’Hara Smith, her daughter in Law Kelly Brooks Smith, and her grandchildren Brooke O’Hara Smith and Kate O’Hara Smith.

Marcia grew up living in many places in her young life. Her early years were spent growing up in New Haven, Connecticut, and then in her early teen years her family moved to Miami. Eventually she attended boarding school in Nebraska, and then attended college in Boulder Colorado. Eventually, her wanderlust got the best of her, and at 18 years old, took a bus to California with one of her girlfriends and got a job as a bank teller in Manhattan Beach. At this bank she met her future husband John who was a loan officer. They met in a bank carpool, as a group of young bank employees they would carpool to work together. Dad always said when he was driving the car, he would adjust the rear view mirror to check out Mom in the back seat, who would eventually become his wife.

As a young woman, Mom had visions of becoming a dress designer. Always the creative one, she would sketch women’s clothing. She was always a sharp dresser, and throughout her life was one of those ladies who always got her hair done once a week at the beauty salon. On the outside she may have appeared to be very prim and proper, but to tell the truth, she was OK with getting down and dirty in her gardens she loved so much. She was even OK with getting grimy on several fishing adventures with her husband John. She lived her life, always inspired by adventure.

Prior to having children, she was a licensed airplane pilot along with her husband. Once, she even flew a glider (a plane without an engine) off a cliff in Southern California, and loved every minute of it. After she had kids she gave up her flying interests.

In the 60’s in Southern California she had a keen interest in astrology. I remember her playing the song from Hair over and over, “The Age of Aquarius” became her favorite songs at that time.

Mom learned to play Bridge, and this is where she met many of her closest friends that sustained her throughout the rest of her life. Bridge kept her mind sharp, and until her last days, her mind was always sharp.

Mom loved to travel and explore the world with her husband. She had a Welsh background, and was overly obsessed with all things English. She was well versed in English history, English gardens, and English cooking. She also loved to cook and owned an arsenal of kitchen spices and shelves full of cookbooks that she enjoyed reading “just for fun”.

The family moved to Key Biscayne in Southern Florida in 1974. Here she was a housewife and Mom and always had supper on the table every night where the family would gather and tell the stories of the day. She was very active in the Key Biscayne Yacht Club and became Sea Belle captain. Mom and Dad led very active social lives.

Mom became involved in professional flower arranging and won several contests. She went back to school to study interior design and began an interior design company with her friend Dianne.

In 1991 when she was 54 years old, she lost her husband who died from a heart attack while away on a business trip. This was a devastating and unexpected blow, but friends and family rallied around her and she eventually got through it.

In October of 2016 Mom then moved to Jupiter to live in Mangrove Bay. She was very happy at Mangrove bay and she was an active bridge player there.

For her 80th birthday she took the family to Disney World, which was an absolute blast. Even though she was in a wheelchair, she surprised everyone by hanging in there during the hot 12 hour days while the grandkids went on ride after ride.

Mom passed away July 16, 2019 due to lung/heart complications from all of her early years of smoking. Her final wishes to her children were this: “Take care of each other, and we had allot of fun, didn’t we.”

A service will be held for Mom next summer at an English Garden (location TBD) in England with her family.