Avis de décès de Shirley Smith - Nécrologie - MesAieux.com

BARTOW -- Mrs. Irene Shirley Smith was determined and not afraid to pursue her dreams. The retired co-owner of Shirley and Frank's Family Store on Main Street in Bartow died of natural causes associated with old age Thursday (Jan. 15, 2004) at Life Care Center of Winter Haven. She was 100. "They sold blue jeans, shirts, socks, they fit shoes," said her daughter-in-law, Anne Smith of Bartow. "They had the wooden floors that they used to sprinkle the saw dust on it with the oil to sweep it. It was a neat place." She was born in Canon, Ga., on July 6, 1903. Following her high school graduation, she and a friend went to Atlanta to attend a business school. Just before graduation, a professor asked for volunteers to move to Polk County to work out of the abstract office in the courthouse in Bartow. "She and her friend got on train and came to Bartow. At at the "Y" is where they got off the train and walked down Main Street and found a place to live," said her son, Frank "Bubba" Smith. While working in the courthouse and looking out the window, Mrs. Smith saw a an attractive man who would become her husband. She and Frank B. Smith Sr. wed in 1928 and started a dry goods store with another couple, the Simons. They operated the business out of the Smiths' garage. In the 1950s, the Smiths opened Shirley and Frank's Family Store at 375 E. Main St. in Bartow. The couple operated the store together until her husband's death in 1970, with Mrs. Smith continuing to run the business another five years by herself. Following her retirement in the mid-1970s, Mrs. Smith took art lessons and began working with oil paints. "She decided she liked water colors better," Anne Smith said. "She did some gorgeous paintings, and her seamstress work was wonderful. She also crocheted and knitted." She was a member of the Bartow Art Guild, the Polk County Historical Association and the Bartow Crickette Club. She was a member and past grand officer of the Order of the Eastern Star in Bartow. She was a member of the Bartow Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In addition to her son, Mrs. Smith is survived by her daughter, Betty Shirley Springer, South Daytona, five grandchildren and eight greatgrandchildren. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 this evening at WhiddenMcLean Funeral Home, 650 E. Main St., Bartow. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home chapel. Burial will be in Wildwood Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church building fund, P.O. Box 1411, Bartow, the Polk County Historical Society or Florida United Methodist Children's Home, 51 Main St., Enterprise, 32725.