Anita Lain Smith

After graduating from Ballard Normal High School in Macon, Georgia, she received a Bachelor’s Degree from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and a Master’s Degree from the University of North Texas in Denton. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, charter member of Jack and Jill Dallas Chapter, and a member of numerous professional and civic organizations. She was listed in Who’s Who of American Women.

Her career as a teacher was a reflection of her personal concern for her students and of her desire for all of them to attain their highest potentials. Her personal commitment enabled her to devote fifteen years to teaching English, social studies and art education in elementary, junior high and high schools in Florida, Oklahoma and Texas and to devote five years to counseling students at Lincoln High School in Dallas, Texas and at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago, Illinois. During the last fifteen years of her career, she concentrated her counseling skills toward the education of Professional Nurses at Loyola University of Chicago School of Nursing and at the University of Illinois College of Nursing at Chicago, Illinois. At the time of her retirement in 1980 she was a tenured Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University Of Illinois College Of Nursing.

Although her career, which spanned thirty-five years, was dedicated to the field of education, her life was always dedicated to family - and her family was always the most important part of her life. She was preceded in death (April 6, 2009) by her beloved husband of fifty-five years, James Edwin Smith, Jr. and (June 20, 2009) by their beloved daughter, Adrien Yvonne Smith Arnold. She is survived by their remaining three children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; sons James Edwin Smith III (Diane) and Lee Stanley Smith (Michelle), daughter Annette Louise Smith, grandsons Kevin Christopher Arnold, Derek Clinton Arnold and Jamund Earle Washington, granddaughters Kara Anita Smith Boone (K. Nash), Alana Pilar Smith Slater, Anitra Lynette Washington, and Allison Christine Smith, great-granddaughters, Bleu Isaac Slater, Morgan Grace Boone, Sophia Erica Boone and Addison Leigh Green, and great-grandson Jaxon Morris Crawford. She is survived by two nieces, Anna Maria Benjamin Price and Regine Nichole Hall Aichlmayr (Michael) and two grand-nephews, Hollis Freeman Price III, and Eric Neal McClenden (Andrea). She is also survived by several cousins.