Edna M. Smith

Edna M. Smith Wife, mother, artist, and long-time Rochester resident, dies at 91 Edna M. Smith, age 91, of Estes Road, Rochester, died peacefully at home on August 14, 2015, surrounded by her family. Edna was born in 1924 in New York City, one of four children of Dr. John H. Morris and Edna O'Neill Morris, and was raised in Jackson Heights, New York. She was a 1946 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in art history. After college she worked for several years at The Frick Collection in New York City. In 1950 Edna married Dr. Alexander C. Smith, also of New York. In 1952 they moved to Rochester, where they raised their six children and where Dr. Smith opened his general practice of medicine at a time when there were few local physicians. She had a deep appreciation for the personal bond between doctor and patient in traditional family medicine. She felt privileged to have played a vital support role in a busy rural practice, often recalling the patients who came to the kitchen door and the telephone that never stopped ringing. Edna was an accomplished and award-winning artist. She was a member of the Durham Art Association and the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA), through which she made many wonderful friends. Her watercolor and oil paintings have been exhibited at The Governor's Inn, Artstream, Paul Creative Arts Center, Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery, New Hampshire Institute of Art, and in many juried NHAA exhibits at the Currier Museum, where in 2001 she was awarded the Miriam Sawyer Prize for painting. Yet she considered one of her most enduring artistic accomplishments to be oil portraits of her eight young grandchildren. By her own accounting, the consuming activity of her life was family and the children who "kept their parents young and very proud." Among the greatest treasures of her long life, she wrote, were these: an ideal childhood, marriage to her true love and hero, a loving family, wildflowers in June fields, woodland hikes in all seasons just out the back door, family music fests, fun with her wonderful grandchildren, time to engage with the elusive muse, and now and then time to escape to the peace and solitude of a wilderness lake. Edna is survived by her husband of 65 years, Alexander C. Smith, and their six children: Catherine E. Smith (and her husband, Harvey Horn) of Rochester; Barbara H. Smith (and her husband, Richard Follender) of Nashua; George A. Smith of New York City; Alex J. Smith (and his wife, Laurie Smith) of Kailua, Hawaii; M. Sue Smith (and her husband, Mark Dixon) of Boulder, Colorado; and Elizabeth A. Smith (and her husband, Charles Bacharach) of Baltimore, Maryland. Edna's grandchildren are Justin Bond, Sarah Bond, Rachel Follender, Matthew Follender, Kai Bacharach, Anna Bacharach, Alex Dixon and John Dixon. Edna is also survived by her twin brother, John Morris of Medomak, Maine; by her sisters, Mary Elizabeth Morris of New York City and Joan McNally of Billings, Montana; and by a large extended family and many dear friends. A private family memorial will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to a charity of your choice. Arrangements are under the care of the R.M. Edgerly & Son Funeral Home, 86 South Main Street, Rochester, NH. To sign the online guestbook, please go to www.edgerlyfh.com