Anita Spooner Smythe

Anita Spooner Smythe, 77, of Jonesborough, Tenn., passed away peacefully on Jan. 27, 2021. Born Anita Joyce Spooner on July 9, 1943, in Rome, NY, she was the eldest child of Allan Murray Spooner and Jean Schumaker Spooner and lived in West Edmeston, NY, during her early years. She received her baccalaureate degree from The State of New York College in Buffalo and her master’s degree from The State of New York College in Brockport.

Anita married the love of her life, Randy Smythe, on Dec. 28, 1963. They have lived in Saugerties, Lyndonville, and Medina, NY, and moved to Jonesborough in 2003.

During her lifetime she was a teacher of special education children in Medina and later taught business, travel, and tourism courses at Genesee Community College in Batavia, NY. Anita always loved nature and enjoyed apple picking in the fall in the 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, fostering a love of travel with her husband. While working, she traveled to Hawaii, Alaska, Luxembourg, and Israel, and after her retirement she and Randy traveled together to many U.S. states, Canada, England, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Italy.

Anita 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. Prior to that, she served as the vice president as well as membership chair. In 2017, she was the chairperson and coordinator for the first charity quilt project held during the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, raising money for the local food pantry. The name of the fund-raising 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, “Sometimes We Sew,” since 2005.

Anita’s cherished her family. She is survived by her husband, Randy; daughter, Deana Smythe Healy and her husband John (Minneapolis, Minn.); 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, NH); and many nieces and nephews. Also surviving is their English “daughter” Sandra, her husband Bill Jackson, and their daughter Emily. Sandra lived with the Smythe family as an exchange student in 1982 and became part of the family. The Jacksons have spent time with the Smythe family on their visits to the states, and the Smythe family has stayed with them in Stafford, UK. She is preceded in death by their beloved son Evan who passed away on Dec. 12, 2020, in Hilton Head, SC.

Interment will be held at a later date in the family plot in Lyndonville, NY.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to be made to Ballad Hospice.