Margaret Werner Smith, had lust for life

Margaret Werner Smith, 83, of Elkton, Md., formerly of Wilmington, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, at home with her family.

Born July 17, 1929, in Nassawadox, Va., Margaret was the daughter of the late Harry and Margaret Melson Werner of Greenbush, Va. Margaret's mother died when Margaret was three weeks old. Her father eventually remarried, and Leanora Barnes Werner became the mother Margaret did not have.

Margaret enjoyed helping on her parents' farm and excelled at sports as a girl in high school. Her senior year team won the softball championship. She traveled to Wilmington to work her way through college and was a 1948 graduate of Goldey business school, now known as Goldey-Beacom College. While attending Goldey school, she met her husband-to-be, Lester Smith.

Margaret went on to work for E.I. DuPont Company, the Pentagon, and in later years as a bookkeeper at Jos. W. Small Associates in Wilmington. She enjoyed raising her two children in Kentucky, Massachusetts and Delaware, playing bridge with a large circle of friends, and cooking some of the best seafood in the country. Margaret spent many happy summers on camping trips with her family along the East Coast from Florida to Canada. She also enjoyed 30 years fishing, crabbing, and boating with family and friends at her second home on Rehoboth Bay.

Margaret had an amazing knack of catching the biggest or most fish on family fishing trips. She spent a special time visiting Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay in 2011 and returned to the Eastern Shore of Virginia in 2012, traveling from Chincoteague to Cape Charles, returning to her birth place and finding long lost family grave sites. Despite Margaret's many medical struggles over the years, she had a lust for life and will forever lend a sense of joy to the memories of those who knew and loved her.

She was also preceded in death by her beloved husband of 61 years, Lester Warren Smith; her brother Melson Werner, and her stepmothe, Leanora Werner. She is survived by her son Bruce C. Smith and his partner Sharon Noller of Quartzsite, Ariz.; her daughter Karen S. Kelly and her husband Mike of Elkton; three granddaughters, Mackenzie Coyle of Connnecticut, Lindsay Chasanov of Milton, and Kara Kelly of Elkton; and two great-grandchildren. She also is survived by her niece, Melanie Logan and her husband Jim of North Carolina.

A celebration of Margaret's life will be held at R.T. Foard & Jones Funeral Home, 122 West Main St., Newark, at 1 p.m., Friday March 1. Friends and family may call at the funeral home beginning at noon. Burial will follow at Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Charitable contributions in Margaret's memory may be made to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation or to Goldey-Beacom College Annual Fund c/o the funeral home.