Jean Horn Smith

Jean Smith (born Eva Jean Horn) died in Columbus, Ohio, on July 19, 2018, from complications from a remarkable number of ailments. She was 91. Mrs. Smith was born in her parents' home in Lakeville, Ohio, on April 20, 1927, and attended school in her native Ohio and, during her father's service in the Army Air Corps in World War II, in South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. She graduated from The College of Wooster in 1948, where she met the love of her life, Franklin Smith, to whom she was married until his death in 1997. Trained as a psychiatric social worker, Mrs. Smith worked for several years at the former Hawthornden State Hospital near Sagamore Hills, Ohio. She and Frank raised three children as the family followed Frank's career assignments from Pittsburgh to Gary, Indiana, to Cleveland, to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, eventually settling in Uniontown, Pennsylvania in 1971. Mrs. Smith was an active volunteer for health-care, educational, public safety and religious organizations for many years, and was a devoted member of Uniontown's Trinity United Presbyterian Church for nearly four decades. As family demands on her time diminished, Mrs. Smith became more deeply engaged in her many civic and volunteer activities. After volunteering in support of Fayette County's emergency services, Mrs. Smith became the first full-time coordinator of emergency medical services for a four-county area in Southwest Pennsylvania, and was instrumental in implementing that area's 911 emergency response system. At age 57, she went to school to become a stockbroker and investment advisor, a job in which she thrived; she worked in the Uniontown office of Parker Hunter Incorporated until her mid-70's. Predictably, her co-workers and clients became her dear friends. Her work did not, however, get in the way of her other interests. She loved music (she played piano and guitar), reading, gardening, cooking and, especially, travel. Her travels took her all over the world: she drove cattle from summer pasture in Colorado, taught English in Slovakia, spent 9/11 in Beijing, broke a leg while rock-climbing in the Grand Canyon in her early sixties and channeled the Apostle Paul in Ephesus and Ulysses in the Greek Isles. She read every historic marker and visited every interesting shop she ever saw. She was a ruthless card player, an enthusiastic if occasionally terrifying driver, a gifted story-teller and a great believer in eating on time and in dressing well. She was upbeat, social and sincere, and had the gift of making those around her feel much more interesting when they were in her presence. She never met a stranger. She survived breast cancer, car accidents, being hit by a car, numerous fractures and everything else that got in her way for more than ninety years. She was preceded in death by her parents, Glenn and Bernice Horn, her brother John, her husband and her daughter Linda (Edgecombe, 1954-1998). She is survived by her son Andrew (Linda) Smith and their children, Allison (Paul), Andrea (Steve) and David, and her son Bill (Jessica) and their son Matthew, as well as by Bill's other children Raleigh (Bill), Daniel and Alexander, as well as by three great-grandchildren (Hunter, Sidney and Woods Duttweiler) and her former son-in-law Richard Edgecombe. A memorial service celebrating Jean's life will be held at 2:30 P.M. Friday, August 3, 2018 at SCHOEDINGER NORTHWEST CHAPEL, 1740 Zollinger Rd., where family will receive friends immediately following service until 6P.M. Friday. Pastor Gerald Murphy officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, Central Ohio Chapter, 1379 Dublin Rd., Columbus, Ohio 43215. To share memories or condolences, please visit www.schoedinger.com.