Nancy Ann Smith

Nancy Ann Hall Smith died peacefully in the wee hours of the morning, August 3, 2023. She spent the afternoon and evening of August 2nd with her kids and grandkids all around. Even she called her last hours a celebration and she was happy to be at the party.

Nancy was born in September of 1938 to Bruce and Eulalie Hall in Washington DC. They moved to Idaho and Nancy became a sister when Elizabeth Hall Clancy arrived in 1941. The family moved to Denver, Colorado in 1942 and have lived in the Centennial State ever since.

Nancy grew up in the Barnum neighborhood near 2nd Avenue and Irving Street and attended Barnum School. She recalled hurrying home to listen to The Lone Ranger & Perry Mason on the radio while attending the later grades. Nancy graduated from Denver’s West High School in 1956, and went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree from Denver University. She majored in Theatre Arts and Elementary Education. In the mid 1980s she took a sabbatical and received a Masters Degree from the University of Colorado at Denver. Interestingly, Nancy and her two adult children were all pursuing degrees on Denver’s Auriara campus at the same time that year.

While working at Henry’s Dinner, at the tender age of nineteen, Nancy met the love of her life, Donald M. Smith. He worked at nearby O’Meara Ford on the corner of 14th Avenue and Broadway. O’Meara Ford later relocated to Northglenn, CO. Don and Nancy married and soon gave birth to Leigh Elizabeth in March of 1959.

That same year, Don and Nancy bought one of the homes in the new North Glenn housing development in Adams County, CO. With two bedrooms, one bath and an unfinished basement, they paid $13,500. In 1961, North Glenn was named "the most perfectly planned community in America" by Life magazine and the National Association of Home Builders. Later the two words became one: Northglenn.

In May of 1964, Don and Nancy welcomed son, Donnan Robert Smith to the family.

In April of 1967, the Type 1 Diabetes that defined most of Don’s life shaped his death. He was buried in the Olinger Funeral, Cremation & Cemetery - Highland. Mom purchased the plot next to Dad. He got there 57 years before she did - but the plan was always to reunite in the Garden of Good Shepherd when Nancy’s time came. Don and Nancy’s final resting place is just a few blocks from the Northglenn home they bought together, when their Love was new.

As a newly widowed, single mother, Nancy leaned into her position as an Elementary School Teacher to make ends meet and to provide for her family. For more than 30 years she was a teacher and a librarian with Adams County School District Twelve - later to become Adams County Five Star Schools. She often recalled how in the early days of her career, the Superintendent would hand deliver monthly pay checks to all the educators in the District. She took advantage of an early retirement plan in 1993 and enthusiastically lived an encore “career” as a volunteer, a world traveler and a Grandmother.

Mrs. Smith loved teaching and prided herself on helping kids learn to read. Nancy loved books. She wanted everyone to know books are more than just pages and text. They are vehicles carrying you to new vistas and they are a salve for the soul. Nancy surrounded herself with books, hundreds of them. She relished perusing book stores for hours on end. It was clear she believed as Jorge Luis Borges did when he said, “I have always imagined paradise as a kind of library”.

Mrs. Smith often needed to earn extra money to help make ends meet. She would take second jobs including Convenience Store Clerk, Travel Agent and she even sold books for Time-Life Publishing. The goal was to make a few extra dollars but Nancy frequently put her extra pay into purchasing the books she was selling.

Giving of her time, Nancy learned to produce local cable television shows volunteering her time with Northglenn’s Channel 8 Community Cable Channel. She volunteered as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for the Northglenn Ambulance.

Nancy loved the theatre - performing, directing, and just enjoying the productions of others. She had a life long affiliation with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). She regularly volunteered for the organization and for many years she lovingly held season tickets to all their performances. Nancy volunteered for Denver’s local PBS Affiliate - Channel Six supporting fundraisers.

Nancy Smith even spent a few summers performing Stand Up Comedy in local clubs around the metro area under the stage name: Mary Kate O’Halloran.

As was mentioned above, Nancy was an avid and enthusiastic world traveler having visited 43 countries and 43 of the 50 U.S. States. International travel included visits to Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, England, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tahiti, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Viet Nam.

Family who went before

Nancy was predeceased by

Husband, Donald M. Smith (August 6, 1926 - April 9, 1964); Granddaughter Taylor Rae Leigh Alvarado (September 5, 1992 - December 30, 1992);

Mother Eulalie “Lee” Veronica Crews Hall (October 9, 1914 - June 24, 1954);

Father Bruce Brockway Hall (April 16, 1908 - December 29, 1971)

Grandmother Elva Galloway Hall (1872 - November 11, 1954)

Grandfather William Henry Crews, Sr (1882 - 1960)

Grandmother Edna Lena Verona Blake Crews (1891- 1937)

Family she left behind

Nancy is survived by

Daughter Leigh Elizabeth Smith

Son Donnan Robert Smith

Grandson Nicholas Xavier Smith

Granddaughter Madelyne Delaney Smith

Sister Elizabeth Marie Hall Clancy

Nephew Dean Frazier Clancy

Niece Erika Frazier Clancy