Jo Ellen "Jody" Hemphill Smith

Jo Ellen “Jody” Hemphill Smith passed away on Oct. 23, 2023. She left behind a legacy of expressionist painting, art education, and historic preservation. Jody was born on Jan. 10, 1945, to Fort Wayne educators Lester and Martha Hemphill, who recognized and encouraged her artistic talent from an early age. Her painting skills blossomed as she graduated from Ball State University and attended graduate school at Indiana University. Her reputation grew quickly for utilizing vibrant and emotive color in landscape, floral, and still life paintings. Well known collectors purchased her work before paint dried on canvas. Still, she was an educator at heart. At the beginning of her seventeen-year teaching career, Jody became an art department on wheels, traveling between elementary schools with art supplies in the trunk of her car. Her grand shows for student artwork were well-attended, confidence builders for creative young spirits. Never afraid to take chances, Jody was teaching painting at Delgado College in New Orleans when she married Mark Paul Smith while he was on the road with a rock band. When they returned to Indiana, Mark enrolled in law school and Jody became the first female Chair of the Art Department at Valparaiso University. She centralized the department and showcased it in a historic science building she and her students helped renovate. The junkyard out back metamorphosed into a brick-patio, sculpture garden, with a hand-built kiln for ceramics. Jody was a naturalist with a green thumb and a tree hugger before the term was coined. Her gardens were works of art. She planted flowers and watered, weeded, and groomed them with a delighted passion. Once they blossomed, she immortalized them in paintings. Moonflowers and Naked Ladies were some of her favorites. The West Central Neighborhood in Fort Wayne was always her favorite place to be. She and Mark restored three historic houses on West Wayne Street in the 1980’s before they bought the Mossman House in 1995. It had been the Fort Wayne Museum of Art for decades before Jody began transforming it into Castle Gallery Fine Art. The gallery became her practicum for demonstrating the transformative power of art and the glory of historic preservation. Many of the best artists in North America have shown and sold work at Castle Gallery. National publications have dubbed it “The Gem of the Midwest.” Jody’s gallery has been open to the public, free of charge, for nearly thirty years. Everyone was always welcome. She worked one hundred hours a week and never took a salary. Her labor of love has planted seeds of art that will blossom far and wide for a good long time. She is survived by her husband, Mark, of Fort Wayne, and her brother, Lester Hemphill, of Whiting, N.J. She was preceded in death by her parents; and sisters, Mary Swihart and Shirley Magarian. A celebration of life will be held in the Spring of 2024. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.klaehnfahlmeltonfunerals.com for the Smith family.