Ann Ready Smith

COLUMBIA - For ninety-three years, the world was blessed by the life of Ann Ready Smith. Born in Columbia on February 13, 1931, to William Judson and Margaret White Ready, she died here on Thursday, August 1, 2024. Ann and her two older sisters grew up in Columbia’s Rose Hill Neighborhood. She skipped the twelfth grade at Columbia High School and enrolled as a freshman at USC. Her life of leadership began on campus, serving on the Honor Council, the Panhellenic Council, and as President of the Kappa Delta Sorority. Before her graduation in 1952, she was selected as an Outstanding Senior.

As a young girl, she and her sisters made regular visits to their grandparents’ home in the Readyville community near Johnston, South Carolina. It was there she met Marion, the charming son of a peach farmer from nearby Trenton. Even though he was a Clemson engineering student and she was a devoted Gamecock, they married, and moved to Clemson. Marion’s ROTC requirement took them to Annapolis after Clemson and then took him to France.

Ann stayed in South Carolina until their first child was born. She and three-month-old Jud met Marion in Verdon where they lived for almost a year. Joel was born in Verdon shortly before their return to the family farm in Trenton. Patty joined the family a year later and the two were now five.

Marion left the farm to join SCE&G and the family moved around the state to several small towns before the “Power Company” brought them permanently to Columbia. Ann taught elementary school for eight years in Denmark, Batesburg, and Columbia before opting to become a stay-at-home mom. She volunteered at the children’s schools and at church. When the nest was empty, she began an extraordinary period of volunteer leadership in the community and at Shandon United Methodist Church.

Ann was a founding member of the Friends of the State Museum and chaired its board for two years. She stayed involved as the site for the Museum was established by Governor Riley, who awarded her the Order of the Palmetto in 1983 for her efforts. If she was ever asked about this award, she always proudly added that Marion was given the same honor by Governor Campbell.

She was active in the Columbia Garden Club and served as its president. She was instrumental in the club’s efforts to restore the authentic (1870) gardens at the Woodrow Wilson boyhood home. Her work was recognized in the State Garden Club Community Service Award in 1996, the Special Tribute Award from the South Atlantic Region of the National Council of State Garden Clubs in 1997, and in 1998 by the Special Achievement Award from the National Council of State Garden Clubs.

Ann’s other community involvement included serving on the Board of Epworth Children’s Home and working with the USC Chapter of Kappa Delta Sorority. She was also a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

After Marion’s premature death from cancer in 1989, her church became her utmost passion. She chaired the Long-Range Planning Committee, the Building Committee, the Church Bell Committee, the Staff-Parish Relations Committee and the Administrative Board. She was elected President of the United Methodist Women.

Those who served with Ann on committees, projects and boards knew first-hand of the uncompromising energy and dedication she brought to each endeavor. As a volunteer, she treated every project with professionalism. The best recognition of the depth of her contributions in everything she did may be that she never asked to be chair or president of anything, yet in every venture, it seemed she was tapped, persuaded, or recruited to lead.

Ann loved music. She played piano flawlessly and formally but also impressed her children and their friends, playing by ear the popular songs of their youth. One of her most cherished church activities was her service in the church choir. She sang continuously in a church choir from age twelve to well into her eighties. When she was named the 1991 Woman of the Year by the Shandon United Methodist Women her presenter said, “Ann’s perfect pitch, a delight to any second soprano lucky enough to sit next to her in the Shandon Choir, must have come from her organist mother.”

If friendship is the “masterpiece of nature” Ann was a maestro. Her genuine kindness and joy made her an effortless collector of friendships wherever she went. She nurtured them like an attentive gardener. Although she lived in Trenton for less than two years in the mid-1950s, she and Marion formed a circle of five couples whose friendships lasted all their lives. She cherished friendships made in Denmark and Batesburg, some over 60 years in duration. Columbia has more “Friends of Ann” than can be counted, made through church, her neighborhood, garden club, bridge clubs, book clubs, the Social Survey Club, and many other activities. She understood how to nourish a friendship. She was never too busy to send a hand-written note, pay a visit, or bake her delicious pound cake for a friend. Ann was a volunteer for Meals on Wheels when she met a woman she referred to always as “My friend Janie.” Janie was a shut-in of limited means. Their friendship nourished both Ann and Janie until the end of Janie’s life.

No treasure in life meant more to Ann than her family. She always considered it a blessing to be surrounded by her children, their spouses, her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. No one ever had a sweeter more loving grandmother than “Gran Momma Ann.” She was a great cook and her Thanksgiving recipes – especially her macaroni and homemade chocolate sauce - were everyone’s favorites and have been handed down now to the next generations.

Ann had a deep connection to family history. She attended every Ready family reunion and could recite the details of her family tree back to the first Ready to come to this young country. But at its core, Ann’s sense of family revolved around her relationship with her two sisters. The bond between the “Ready Girls” was no doubt formed in their childhood. She recounted their growing up together in almost idyllic terms. The sisters grew even closer as they raised their children, and no doubt when each was prematurely widowed. Although their lives had taken different paths, they remained deeply devoted to each other and the families they had raised. She loved all her many nieces and nephews and their ever-expanding families.

The annual holiday gathering of families of the sisters, that she called “Ready Christmas,” was her favorite tradition.

Ann’s devotion to her family was also evident in her relationship with her parents and Marion’s. She revered her mother and father. The love and joy she shared with Marion’s mother, “Miss Myrtis” sustained them both throughout their lives.

Ann knew the loss of her parents, her sisters, Elise Ready Badger, Margaret Ready Corry, and most painfully the loss of her dear Marion. She is survived by her children, Marion Judson “Jud” Smith (Ann), Joel Haywood Smith (Pamela), Patty Smith Ayer (Carey) ; grandchildren, Edward Marion “Ned” Smith (Brooke), Margaret Smith Merritt (Turner), Carey Michael Ayer (Jess), Marion Henderson Ayer (Onic), Roberts Loxley “Rob” Smith, and Grace Smith Phillips (Jamie); and great-grandchildren, Carson McCoy Smith, Miller Durant Merritt, Reston Royall Merritt, Berkeley Joseph Ayer, and Brighton Zeleme Ayer.

Her family would like to express their deepest gratitude to the devoted caregivers at Still Hopes and Prisma Hospice. Their professionalism, exceeded only by the loving care they demonstrated for Ann, comforted her and her family through the last days of her life.

Services will be held on Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 2:00 PM at Shandon United Methodist Church. A reception will follow at the church. Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is assisting the family.

A memorial in her honor can be made to Shandon United Methodist Church, Epworth Children’s Home or your favorite charity.

P.S. This obituary was written over three years ago when, after a period of severe dementia, Ann contracted COVID. The family was told to prepare for her to lose that battle. She was taken off her medications and kept comfortable as the virus took its toll. But she was stronger than COVID and recovered, now completely unmedicated. To the profound shock and delight of her family and caregivers, she woke from her illness largely free of confusion, except for having no understanding of why she was at Still Hopes or how she got there. After a period of adjustment, she was her old self again. She consumed novels, welcomed family and friends, kept up with politics and became a huge Shane Beamer fan. During her awakening, she was able to attend two family Thanksgivings and a granddaughter’s wedding.

Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com