Virginia A. Perry Smith

Virginia was born in Rushville, Missouri July 27, 1948. She was raised on the farm of Virginia Mae (Kuhnert) and Otto F. Sonnenmoser. She was the eldest of 6 siblings, Fred, Elizabeth, Kenneth, and John. They also had a sister, Agnes Claire, who passed as a child. Growing up on the farm, she developed her strong values and unrelenting work ethic.

She attended an all-women’s catholic school at Mount St. Scholastica (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, KS and earned a bachelor’s degree. She moved to Kansas City and got a job as a social worker. It is there that she married Police Officer Doug Perry and had 3 children, Brian, Darren, and Karen. Officer Perry was tragically killed in 1978 serving in the line of duty. Virginia impressively handled the obstacles of parenthood as a single mother. Her children attended St. Peter’s, Rockhurst, and St. Theresa’s Schools. She remarried in 1992 to Gerald Smith and was very active in the Waldo/Brookside KC area until 2014 when they sold their house on Valley Rd. and moved to Leawood, KS

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She worked as the principal’s secretary at John T. Hartman School for over 10 years where she was an invaluable friend and co-worker. She battled Breast Cancer valiantly until she passed Tuesday morning Oct. 10, 2017. Her legacy is her lasting love passed on through her many family and friends. She was blessed with 7 grandchildren Jackson, Sidney, Lila, Spencer, Will, Molly, and Bennet. Her strength, courage, love and forgiveness were cherished by all. She will be dearly missed, and she gave much more to this world than she ever took in return. In loving memory to a wonderful mother, grandmother, wife, sister, and friend.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00am Saturday, October 14, 2017 at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 701 E. Meyer Blvd., Kansas City, MO with burial to follow in Mt. Moriah Cemetery. Visitation will be 6-8 pm Friday, October 13 at Mt. Moriah, Newcomer and Freeman Funeral Home, 10507 Holmes Rd., Kansas City, MO 64131.

Contributions may be made to the Sarah Cannon Fund, 1100 Charlotte Ave, Ste. 800, Nashville, TN 37203 or Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 215 W. Pershing Rd #300, Kansas City, MO 64108.