Joan E. Smith

Our beloved mother, grandmother, wife and faithful friend, Joan Eleanor Smith of Loveland, Colorado, passed into heaven on December 30, 2015. She was an extraordinary and gifted woman, artist, and dancer.

Joan Eleanor Smith was born in St. Louis, Missouri to James and Phyllis Mulholland. She was the second of four children. She was raised in a Roman Catholic Irish home and attended Rosati-Kain High School in St. Louis (an all-girls Catholic high school). She was a ballet and tap dancer, and taught dance at three different forums during and after her high school career. She met our father, Frederick Trussell Smith at the USO club where she was a hostess and they were married in St. Louis, MO at the St. Louis Cathedral. She had eight children: Frederick “Tom” Smith; Joan Smith, who preceded her in death in 2006; Nancy Baranczyk (Wayne); Susan Gordon; Mary Ellen Wild (Greg); Janet Burgueño; Mark Smith (Elizabeth); and Kathleen McGuire (Jessie). Mother is also survived by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren: Alex Wild (April) and their children, Xander and Rocco, Suzanne Smikahl (Kenny), Oliver Baranczyk (Kate Petty), Melissa Staszak (Jon), Matthew Gordon, Elena Burgueño, and Aiden Smith. Joan is also survived by two sisters: Phyllis Hilgeman and Mary Catherine Scheybal.

Joan and Fred traveled all over (Fred was career Army). They lived in Landstuhl, Germany, arriving with two small children and having three more while living there. Joan was an avid artist and a member of the Poudre Valley Art League and Tuesday Morning Sketch Group of Fort Collins. She also was a member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Loveland, and a weekly Bible Study Group. Joan loved St. Louis but the majority of her life was in Denver, Fort Collins, and Loveland, CO. She loved visiting the Rocky Mountains, Taos, Santa Fe and Ruidoso, New Mexico, where she painted endless stills and landscapes. She even had art on display in the Denver Art Museum in 1965. She did everything from caning chairs/upholstering furniture, painting in her art studio, sewing clothes for her six daughters, crafts (needlework/cross-stitch, quilting), making dolls, gardening, cooking, singing and dancing. She was beautiful, funny, sassy, but also contemplative, meditative, very prayerful and a devoted Catholic. She attended Adoration once a week at St. John’s. She was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, and a great friend. Her main focus and love was our Lord God, the Blessed Mother, and our huge family. We felt her love and devotion. She will be sorely missed, always loved, revered and adored as the best Mom one could ever have had.

Funeral Service 10:00am Thursday, January 7, 2016 at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Loveland followed by a reception. Interment at Ft. Logan National Cemetery at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to Birthline of Loveland, Northern Colorado Catholic Charities, and Pathways Hospice, c/o Allnutt Funeral Service. Go to www.allnutt.com to send condolences and sign the guestbook.