Marie Smith

Marie Fay Smith February 6, 1939 - February 8, 2023 Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalms 119:105 On February 8, 2023, Marie Fay Smith (84) went Home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, ten months after her diagnosis of lymphoma. As a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and friend, she prayed daily for her family and loved ones, leading by example. We may never know the full impact of those many prayers. Marie was born in 1939 in Yakima, WA, to Roy and Helen Leach. She grew up in a Christian home on a farm in the Satus area, near Granger, WA. As the oldest girl in the family, she spent her time as a young child riding her bicycle and going on adventures with her older brother, Ernest. When she was older, she helped her mom with the house and caring for her five younger siblings. Marie had many fond memories of attending the Satus Sunday School as a child, and then attending the Parkside Missionary Church in Granger with her family. She attended Granger Schools, where she met the love of her life, Kenneth E. Smith. After Marie spent one year attending Seattle Pacific College, she and Ken were married in Granger on August 9,1958. Sixty-four years later, the magic was still in the air. After they were married, they moved to Corvallis, Oregon while Ken finished his schooling at Oregon State College. Marie worked any odd job she could find, from sorting at a fruit-packing house, babysitting, cleaning house, to typing in an attorney’s office. When Ken finished college, they moved to Lynden, Washington, where Ken taught shop at the Christian school. They remained until 1966, and all four of their children were born while they lived in Lynden. Ken and Marie were active in the Birch Bay Missionary Church, and Lynden Christian School community. They moved to McKenna, Washington, for a year and then in 1967 moved just outside of Granger, to the two-story brick home Ken’s father Harold had built with bricks from the Granger brick factory. Marie learned to sew as a young girl, and honed those skills sewing for her own children. She opened a business with her mother, Helen, in the early 1970’s called “SEW FUN”, and together they taught many sewing classes at local fabric stores. Marie was a master seamstress and was able to make blazers, pants, crew neck t-shirts, men’s suits, and utilize tailoring techniques to create homemade clothing that looked like professional garments. In later years, Marie tailored gorgeous professional suits for her teaching career, and altered her store bought pants to fit perfectly. She also had a way of mending Ken’s clothes so they appeared to never wear out. Marie’s Christian faith anchored her life. She served her church in many capacities including teaching Sunday School, leading Child Evangelism Fellowship Good News Clubs, and Vacation Bible Schools. As her children reached junior high and high school age, she actively participated in the Missionary Church summer camps, and took many local teens to camp with them. Marie loved to play the piano, playing for her own personal enjoyment, also for church, and later for Women’s Aglow in Sunnyside. In the early 1970’s she began playing scripture-based songs from the blue Psalter chorus book. She laboriously learned to read and play chords from these songs. This foundation allowed her to branch out and begin writing her own worship songs and poems. She inspired her children to play piano and musical instruments, and taught some of her grandchildren to play the piano, creating an incredible musical and spiritual legacy for her family. There was rarely a day when Marie was not heard playing the piano in her living room. The biggest dreams in Marie’s life were to be a mother and wife as well as a teacher. She spent her early life happily raising four children, being a farmer’s wife, and serving at many levels in the church. After her children were grown, she pursued her dream of becoming a teacher, and completed a teaching degree in 1981. She launched a twenty-one year teaching career that included Zillah Schools as a kindergarten and first grade teacher, Sunnyside Christian School as a reading and math specialist, and Granger Schools as a reading and curriculum development specialist. She loved the students that she worked with, praying for them and showing them the love of Jesus by example as she taught. Even after her retirement from teaching, Marie found time to tutor students while she volunteered at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Catalina, Arizona. Marie and Ken loved to travel and started taking short trips around the Pacific Northwest after they purchased a 5th-wheel trailer in 2001. They took time every year to visit their children and grandchildren in Redmond, WA, and Medford, OR, making it a priority to attend their sporting and music events whenever they could. As their family continued to grow and spread out, they continued to travel to visit as many friends and family as they were able to every year. Some of their favorite places to visit included the Oregon coast, Mount Adams, Birch Bay, Lynden, Redmond, Medford, and Desert Hot Springs, CA. Years of faithfully serving in church is an integral part of Marie’s legacy, and she impacted many as a mentor and encourager. This encouragement continued in later years via her “Thoughts for the Day” devotionals she would compose and share with dozens via email. Marie did not have a stagnant spiritual life, but a vibrant curiosity and a heart to pursue the things of God. She was very open to walking in new avenues of truth, freedom, grace, and love, and this was evident in the spiritual insights she would share. She not only blessed her family, but also her church family. For the last eighteen years, Marie has been a respected and beloved member of the congregation at Zillah Church of the Nazarene. We have all been so blessed to have her spiritual input in our lives. Marie was preceded in death by her parents, Roy and Helen Leach, and her brother David Leach. She will be forever remembered by her husband and best friend, Ken, her four children Phil (Sheri), Paul (Lisa), Marlaine (Scott), Dale (Jeanne), her thirteen grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her siblings, Ernest (Romayne), Marjorie (Howard), Martha, Marilyn, Dale (Dorothy), in-laws Janet, Wayne, Carole, and numerous nieces and nephews. Marie will be greatly missed. A Celebration of Life for Marie will be held Saturday, February 25, 2 p.m. at the Zillah Church of the Nazarene, 203 Miles Drive, Zillah, WA 98953. Memorial donations are requested to be directed to the Yakima Union Gospel Mission, 1300 N 1st Street, Yakima, WA 98901. yugm.org To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Marie Smith, please visit our flower store.