A Life Lived: Martha Smith worked to make life better for others
Published 12:40 pm Tuesday, November 1, 2022
- Martha Smith
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A good piece of advice given to me long ago was “Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” You don’t have to talk all the time to be heard.
Martha Ann Smith, who died October 22, was a quiet person, but she had a positive influence on a lot of people, especially those she worked and worshiped with at Grace Baptist Church.
Martha had served as both music secretary and assistant secretary at Grace Baptist. Alice Birkner, who worked with Martha in the church office, noted that she was a very quiet and caring person. “She worked quietly behind the scene. If she saw something that needed to be done, she did it and rarely talked about it,” Alice shared.
Martha’s humility impressed Alice. “She thought of others first and if she could be of help to someone, she was there no matter what the need was. Hers was a long and fruitful life. She touched a lot of lives,” said Alice.
Martha was a very talented person. She enjoyed doing ceramics and when she was younger taught a ceramics class for her church friends. Martha also enjoyed crafts. “She was a seamstress, did decoupage, and she was a very talented artist. She did some beautiful art pieces,” shared Kathy Wilson, a neighbor on Erie Lane.
Martha and her husband, Harol, moved to Elizabethton in the early 1970s with the American Air Filter family. Harol, who died in August, worked for American Air Filter for 38 years. He was a deacon and Sunday School teacher at Grace Baptist. He and Martha had been married 69 years.
Kathy shared that Martha enjoyed walking. “She and Maria Bingham walked almost every day. Also, she and her husband enjoyed foot races when they were younger.”
Both, she and Harol sang in the church choir. In addition to Martha’s work in the office, she, too, was a Sunday School teacher and served as nursery coordinator.
Martha enjoyed her family which included two sons, Mike and John, and their children. She and Harol had six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Friends shared that Martha was a good housekeeper as a well as a good cook. She served on the food committee at church. “She was very home and family oriented and enjoyed serving,” said Kathy. “They were very devoted servants, both she and Harol.”
Martha Ann Smith may not have had a title or a big-paying job in life, but only eternity will reveal the rewards that await her. That is when the servant is duly rewarded.
Both, Martha and Harol are buried at the VA Cemetery at Mountain Home.
But mention their names to the folks at Grace Baptist Church, and you can detect the love and admiration their church family had for them.
