Anita Smythe, age 77, of Jonesborough passed away peacefully on January 27, 2021.
She was born on July 9, 1943 in Rome, New York, the eldest child of Allan Murray Spooner and Jean Schumaker Spooner and lived in West Edmeston, New York during her early years. She received her baccalaureate degree from The State of New York College in Buffalo, New York, and her master’s degree from The State of New York College in Brockport, New York.
Anita married the love of her life Randy Smythe on December 28, 1963. They have lived in Lyndonville, Medina and Saugerties New York and moved to Jonesborough in 2003.
During her lifetime she was a teacher of special education children in Medina, New York, and later taught busines, travel, and tourism courses at Genesee Community College in Batavia, New York. Anita always loved nature and even enjoyed apple picking in the fall in Western New York apple orchards. She rescued cats from animal shelters and several times adopted cats that had been abandoned in the winter cold of New York. She spent several years managing a travel agency which fostered a love of travel with her husband. During the course of their marriage she traveled to Hawaii, Alaska, and Israel, and later, after her retirement they traveled together to many states, Canada, England, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Italy.
Anita had always loved sewing and became a prize-winning quilter with many quilting friends in Tennessee. She was in the Old Town Quilt Guild and served as president for two years from 2010 to 2011. She served as the vice president prior to that, and served as the membership chair. She was the chairperson and coordinator for the first charity quilt project sold during story-telling, raising money for the local food pantry in 2017. The name of that quilt was "Stars Over Jonesborough". Anita was an award winner at both Asheville and Pigeon Forge quilt shows. She was a member of a neighborhood quilting group since 2005. That group is named "Sometimes We Sew".
Anita’s cherished her family. She is survived by her husband Randy, her daughter Deana Smythe Healy and husband John (Minneapolis), brother Bill Spooner and his wife Pam (Jonesborough), brother Tom Spooner and his wife Nancy (Kenai, Alaska), sister Linda Spooner Gibson and her husband Jack (North Sutton, New Hampshire) and many nephews and nieces. Also surviving is their English “daughter” Sandra, who lived with the Smythe family for a year as an exchange student in 1982 and who became part of the family, her husband Bill Jackson, and their daughter Emily. They have lived with the Smythe family on their visits to the states, and the Smythe family has lived with the Jacksons in Stafford, UK.
She was preceded in death by their beloved son Evan who died on December 12, 2020 in Hilton Head South Carolina.
Interment will be at a later date in the family plot in Lyndonville New York.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to be made to Ballad Hospice.