La Grande, Orregon
Carol May Smith, 76, of Gresham died July 5. A graveside service will be conducted at Island City Cemetery in Island City at 2:30 p.m. July 27.
Mrs. Smith was born July 23, 1929, in La Grande to Clayton and Edith English Hargett. Her grandparents were homesteaders in Oregon.
She graduated from La Grande High School in 1947 and then from Eastern Oregon College in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. Mrs. Smith was an elementary teacher in Prineville and then decided to go back to school at the University of Oregon where she obtained a master’s of education in 1953. For several more years she taught high school in Harrisburg, Joseph and Wallowa.
On June 9, 1956, she married Roland E. “Smitty” Smith on her parents’ ranch near La Grande. She returned to the University of Oregon in the 1960s and received a master’s of science with a librarianship major in 1967.
In 1968 the Smiths moved to Lubbock, Texas, where she worked for 18 years at Texas Tech University as a reference librarian. After retiring, they moved to Gresham in 1986.
Mrs. Smith was a well-organized woman and in earlier years liked to sew and knit. She and Smitty enjoyed their bridge clubs, where Carol was one of the top players. She loved to work on jigsaw puzzles, to garden, read, take weekly trips to a mall and fish at Wallowa Lake. She was also a lifelong cat lover, always willing to care for the neighbors’ cat when they were on vacation.
She is survived by her husband, Roland “Smitty” of Gresham; sisters-in-law Helen Hargett of Toledo, and Darlena Hargett of La Grande; and several nieces, nephews and grand-nieces and grand-nephews.
Her parents and three brothers, Eugene, Vern and Dale Hargett, died earlier.
Memorials may be made to the Oregon Humane Society, P.O. Box 11364, 1067 NE Columbia Blvd., Portland 97211.
American Burial & Cremation of Oregon is handling arrangements.
The Observer Online, Obituaries for the week ending July 22, 2006 – Published: July 27, 2006