Greta Keith Smith

Greta Keith Smith, 86
FREEPORT -- Greta Keith Smith, 86, a longtime Yarmouth resident, died on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011, at Hawthorne House in Freeport.
She was born on April 11, 1924, in South Portland, the daughter of Thelma (Low) and Anson F. Keith. When she was two, the family moved to a 100-acre farm in Pownal, where she and her three sisters and five brothers grew up. She attended Pownal schools and North Yarmouth Academy.
She married Carlton Snow of Pownal on Nov. 9, 1941. During World War II, she and her sister Clara Snow worked at Bath Iron Works for a time. Later she and her sister Thelma Day worked in Portland at American Can Company, where Greta drove a forklift. In the late 1940s, she worked at Freeport Shoe Factory with her sister Gladys Libby.
In 1951, she married Rolan Staples of Bath. The couple moved to Old Orchard Beach, where they bought Fern Park Market and Snug Harbor Cabins. She loved the business, which they operated together for more than 17 years. She was known for her warmth, her charisma and her Italian sandwiches. Two of her nieces remember driving from Freeport to OOB just for one of 'Aunt Greta's Italian sandwiches' -- and a visit with her.
She taught Sunday school at the Methodist Church in Old Orchard Beach and was a member of the Order of Eastern Star Annette Chapter #184 in Saco. Her daughter Maureen Lee remembers her parents providing meals for the March of Dime walkers in OOB and sponsoring a Little League team for many years.
After Mr. Staples died in 1969, Greta moved to Arundel. In 1981 she moved to Yarmouth and married Carl Smith, who had been her classmate years earlier at North Yarmouth Academy. The couple lived on West Main Street in Yarmouth. Mr. Smith died in 2001.
Maureen said her mother was an ardent outdoors person all her life. She loved to snowshoe and ice skate and was 'great at crack the whip' in skating. She was an avid deer hunter and shot her first 8-point buck in 1970.
In 2007, she moved to Hawthorne House in Freeport, where she lived just down the hall from her sister Gladys Libby for several years.
She was predeceased by her parents; her sister Gladys, and her brothers, Leon, Floyd, Verne and Donald Keith. Survivors include her daughter Maureen Lee of Port St. Lucie, Fla., a son Wayne Snow of Sullivan; a granddaughter Mandy Snow of Oregon, a grandson Rolan Staples of Old Town; two sisters, Clara Snow of Pownal and Thelma Day of Yarmouth, a brother, Scott Keith and his wife Margaret of Freeport; and many nieces, nephews and friends.
Greta Keith Smith