Obituary of Miriam Jean Smith

Smethport - Miriam Jean Lucas Smith, 75, of Smethport, passed away Sunday (February 4, 2018) at her residence.

It was 1942, Duct Tape had just been invented, a bottle of Coca-Cola cost 5 cents, and a gallon of gasoline cost 15 cents.  Mrs. Miniver was a box-office smash, and Bambi made a generation of people detest hunting.  On Mother’s Day, May 14, 1942, Helen and Elmer Lucas welcomed their second daughter into the world.  They named her after Elmer’s sister, Miriam, but she came to be known as Mimi.

Mimi graduated in the 1960 class of Rancocas Woods Regional High School, NJ.  She then went on to study fine arts at the Philadelphia College of Art.  One night at a bar called Dirty Frank’s, she met a handsome young medical student named Kent Smith.  Within two weeks they were engaged, and they married a few months later on June 6, 1964.  After their marriage, they had two children, son, Kent, and daughter, Christie Wallis.  They lived three years in Panama City Panama, before moving to New Jersey to raise their family.

There was never a dull moment at the Smith house.  All the kids in the neighborhood wanted to come to the Smith’s, thanks to Mimi.  Throughout the kid’s Middle and High School years, the Smith’s was known as the place where a sympathetic adult would talk with you as if you were a real person, not a child.

Mimi’s life was full of day-to-day living.  Mimi’s credo was, “Life’s a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!”  She approached life with a vigor that few can parallel.  She would say that even if she didn’t like a new experience, at least it was something new and different.  “Never pass up a chance to try something new,” she’d tell her children.  She loved to laugh and her laughter was infectious.

Mimi and her husband were world travelers and loved an adventure.  In her lifetime, Mimi travelled to 26 countries and 39 States.  She could speak Spanish proficiently, and Friendship fluently.  She won multiple ribbons in the McKean County Fair for her watercolor paintings and other art work.  She was always reading and continued to visit museums of all kinds.  Mimi’s many interests included art, bluegrass, jazz and classic rock music.  She taught her children how to be good, caring people and was an inspiration to many.

In addition to her husband, Kent K. Smith, M.D., she is survived by children, Kent (Caroline) Smith of Hillsdale, NJ and C. Wallis (Renee Kirk) Davenport of Rochester, NY, granddaughter, Liv, also of Rochester, NY.  She also left behind many cousins, nieces, nephews and her many friends.

Mimi was pre-deceased by her parents, her sister, Helene (Doug) Gsell of Medford Lakes, NJ, and her nephew, Michael (Kelly) Gsell of Maple Shade, NJ.

Visitation will be held on Thursday from 10 A.M. to Noon at Hartle-Tarbox Funeral Homes, Inc., 2 Bank St., Smethport, PA, where funeral and committal services will begin at noon with the Rev. Frank Eppley, pastor of the Emmanuel Mission Church of Kane, officiating.  Burial will be in the Fairmount Cemetery, Farmers Valley.

Memorials may be made to Fairmount Cemetery Association, % Ruth Covert, 507 E. Valley Rd., Smethport, PA 16749. 

Online condolences may be made at www.hartle-tarboxfuneralhomes.com.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Hartle-Tarbox Funeral Homes, Inc., Smethport.