Dora Elizabeth Stewart

My mother was born on May 28, 1935, in Indianapolis, Indiana and her parents Lester Smith and Victoria Smith named her Dora Elizabeth Smith. She was the sixth of seven children and the only girl.

At five years old, her mother Victoria Smith, passed away from stomach cancer. Her father Lester Smith felt his three youngest children would need motherly love, so he sent son Floyd Smith, son Wallace Smith and his only daughter my mother Dora to live with his sister in Kentucky.

While growing up on her aunt's farm in Kentucky, my mother Dora would rise early to help feed the farm animals and then walked for miles to go to school. Eventually, she grew tired of the long travels to school, so she did not finish high school but at a later time she received her GED.

In 1956 she met and married John Walter Stewart and to this union four children were born Donna (1957), Vicki (1958), Gregory (1960) and Lisa (1964).

In 1968, she moved with her family from Indianapolis Indiana to Los Angeles, California and devoted most of her life as a homemaker, wife and mother. She would impart her words of wisdom and share those "old sayings" with her children such as…

- Take your coat off or you won't feel it when you go outside.
- No Jell-O unless you finish your food.
- You will have someone's eye out with that thing.
- Don't sit too close to the television – it will hurt your eyes.
- Watch what you're doing.
- Do you think money grows on trees?

As her older children entered high school, my mother Dora decided to work outside of the home, and she got a job working at Pacoima Elementary school as a teacher's aide helping children with reading disabilities.

Besides working at the elementary school, she enjoyed her family. She was close with her brothers Paul Smith and Floyd Smith. Quite often, Paul, his wife Juanita, my mother Dora and my father John would play Bid Whist and Spades. She also enjoyed a close relationship with her brother Floyd. In 2005, Floyd surprised her by traveling from Indiana to California for her 70th birthday.

My mother Dora loved cross word puzzles, she was a huge football fan (Dallas Cowboys was her favorite team), always watched the Lakers and she loved the Turner Classic black and white movies with stars such as Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Crawford and Betty Davis.

She eventually retired as a teacher's aide and spent most of her time with her children. As my mother Dora aged, she struggled with health issues but each time I talked to my mother, she would always say, "I am just so glad that I am here".

At 88 years old, my mother Dora passed away on March 26, 2024. She was preceded in death by both parents Lester Bridgewater Smith (1895 – 1959) and Victoria Anderson Smith (1906 – 1940), daughter Lisa Stewart (1964 – 2013), and brothers Paul Evans Smith (1923 – 1985), Lester Bridgewater Smith Jr. (1926 – 1975), James Henry Smith (1927 – 2006), Simon Smith (1930 – 1931), Floyd Allen Smith (1933 – 2018), and Wallace Harold Smith (1937 – 2006).

She leaves to cherish her precious memories, daughter Donna (husband Steven), daughter Vicki (husband Glynn), and son Gregory. Her grandchildren Talisha, Chase, Joshua and Micah as well as other family and relatives.