Nan Reid Smitherman

Nan was born in Red Bay, Alabama to John and Lonnie Reid in 1939. She went to elementary school in Red Bay and high school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where she enjoyed playing the clarinet and being in the marching band. After graduating from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa with a bachelor's and master's degree in secondary school education, Nan taught mathematics in Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama; Arlington, Massachusetts; Montgomery County, Maryland; and Dallas, Texas. Later, she was a successful realtor with Ebby Holliday for many years in Dallas, Texas. After moving to Pittsburgh, she opened an antique store employing both her adaptable, entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen.

Nan married Dr. Thomas Cecil Smitherman on November 25, 1969, in Red Bay, Alabama. During their marriage, they lived in Birmingham, Alabama, Boston Massachusetts, Gaithersburg, Maryland, Dallas Texas, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

She was a beloved and beautiful wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, and friend whose vivacious, gregarious, adventurous, and generous spirit was infectious. She never met a stranger and connected with people from all walks of life. She had the gift of making every day an adventure and seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. She passed on her love of reading, antiques, gardening, and nature to her daughters.

While in Dallas, she led a troop of Blue Birds, a program for young girls within the Camp Fire organization, for her younger daughter and passed on her love of the natural world to the next generation. She also shared her creative and imaginative side with her treasured grandsons, including when she transformed a log into a painted dragon in the backyard of their lake house in Deep Creek, Maryland.

She was involved in garden clubs in Maryland and Pennsylvania and served as a President of the Garden Club of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

She is survived by her husband Thomas Cecil Smitherman; her daughters Amy Smitherman Kusic and Katherine Gail Smitherman; her son-in-law Michael Brian Kusic; and her grandsons Reid Michael Kusic, Nathaniel Thomas Kusic, Grayson Dodds Kusic, and Hayden Cecilius Kusic. She will live on in our hearts.

Those who wish to honor Nan Smitherman’s memory are invited to make a donation to Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (waterlandlife.org) in lieu of flowers.