WANDA IRENE EDWARDS SMITH

CLASS OF 1949

MARCH 31, 1932 - JULY 21, 2003

Miami County Republic, July 28, 2003:

Wanda Irene Smith, 71, Garnett, a former Osawatomie area resident, died Monday, July 21, 2003, at Olathe Medical Center. She had major heart surgery July 8.

She was the first child of Herman Dale and Odessa Mae Hay Edwards and was born March 31, 1932, on a farm about three miles northeast of Lane. She attended the Clark Valley, Highland and Independence country schools and was a 1949 graduate of Osawatomie High School.

She and Donald L. Smith were married March 24, 1950 at the Beagle United Methodist Church. They became the parents of five children. They lived in or near Beagle until October 1958, when they moved to Olathe. In 1967, they moved to Houston, Texas, where they lived until moving to Harvey, LA, in 1984.

After her husband's retirement from railroad work, they returned to Kansas and lived in Garnett.

Mrs. Smith's walk of faith began with her parents, who took the family to church first in the Quaker Friends Church and then to the Beagle United Methodist Church whe she was 7 or 8 years old. She enjoyed mission work and received several special recognition pins and certificates for church service. She had been a member of the First United Methodist Church in Garnett at the time of her death. She had served as a Sunday school teacher, Bible school director and in the position of president and other offices in United Methodist Women.

She was a member of Rebekahs from 1950 until moving to Olathe.

Early in her life, she worked at Leidigh and Havens Lumber Co. in Osawatomie and at Osawatomie State Hospital.

She was extremely proud of her children and their choices of partners in marriage and of her grandchildren. The family always had great fun at all their dinners, celebrations and get-togethers, playing cards and board games.

Mrs. Smith was a quilter and seamstress and loved to cook and can.

Those preceding her in death include a son, Don Edward Smith, who died in infancy.

Surviving are her husband, Donald L. Smith of the home; her three sons, Richard Wayne Smith of Garland, Texas, Keith Leroy Smith of Seabrook, Texas, and Mark Alan Smith of Pocatello, Idaho; her daughter, Nancy Elizabeth Meyer of Chapman, Kan.; a brother, Loren Dale Edwards of Lane; a sister, Loretta Diehm of Parker; and eight grandchildren.

Services were Friday at the First United Methodist Church in Garnett. Pallbearers were Earl Lizer, Jim Sobba, Delton Hodgson, Dale Lybarger, Eldon Pontious and Robert Umbarger. Honorary pallbearers were Dale Douglass, Clyde Merrill and Dave Axtell. Burial was in Beagle Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to the Garnett church or the Garnett Senior Citizens Center in care of Eddy-Birchard Funeral Home in Osawatomie.

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