Mary Anne Smith

Anne was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Dorothy and Stuart Littlefair. She was married to Charles F. Smith for 25 years and had two children Christopher F. Smith and Michelle L. Smith Miele.

In her youth, Anne enjoyed going to the lake with her mother and brothers

Bill and John. They had a cottage and would frequently go in the summer to swim and visit their relatives. She would later bring her children to the family cottage to vacation and visit her mother. Outside of the warm summer months, one of Anne’s favorite pastimes was ice skating and she continued to skate into adulthood. As a teenager, Anne wanted to do illustrations for fashion and eventually followed her passion into an advertising career. Talented in many artistic ways, Anne was also a beautiful pianist. She enjoyed traveling as well and visited a number of countries in her teenage years and later as an adult.

Anne was a talented and accomplished artist and first began her career at the Bell Telephone Company of Canada, creating and illustrating advertisements for various products and services. She was sought after for her flawless free hand illustrations and her pristine lettering, as perfect as if it were printed from a modern computer. Clients were continually impressed by her work. One even wrote to her saying, “thank you for such an outstanding layout. I was quite impressed and it was a wonderful feeling to be able to love and present such beautiful work!”

After moving to California, Anne continued to work in advertising at the General Telephone Directory Company commonly known as a “yellow pages” publisher in Long Beach. At the time, the company did not have women in these types of positions, but Anne being the confident and headstrong woman that she was, said “let me show you what I can do,” and was offered a job on the spot. She became the first woman to ever be hired and quickly became a respected artist in the advertising department. When she was pregnant with her first child, she was allowed to work from home during a time when that was unheard of because of how much her team admired and respected her.

Beyond her day job, Anne took classes at the California Art Institute. She cultivated her skills to sketch the human figure, draw the head and hands, and vividly capture a person’s expressions and emotions with color. Oil pastel and watercolor became her choice mediums and she filled sketchbooks with rich portraits, brilliant landscapes, and striking still life.

In the 1980’s, Anne shifted careers and became a certified vitamin and mineral specialist, working at Great Earth Vitamins and later GNC. One customer she happened to meet, Dennis L. Yank, would become her companion for the next 30 years. She had many recurring customers, some of which she helped to improve their lives and health dramatically. Anne spent time researching various health issues that her customers faced by renting books from the library, and would also purchase books to further her knowledge and add to her own small library. Often, customers would return to personally thank her for taking the time to help them.

To add to her creativity, Anne had a vintage Singer sewing machine that she used all her life to craft various garments like blouses and jumpers, an irish dance dress with intricate embroidery for her daughter Michelle, and later a bridesmaid dress for her.

Anne’s beloved son, Christopher, greeted her at the heavenly gates having preceded her in death in 2018. She is lovingly survived by her daughter, son-in-law, two granddaughters, two sisters-in-law, four nieces and nephews, and long term companion. Her family and friends will greatly miss her fierce vitality, loyalty, honesty, and friendship.