Loretta J. Smith

Loretta J. Smith, of Sioux City, IA, died October 3, 2025, at Pioneer Valley Home in Sergeant Bluff, IA, with family at her side. Loretta was 89 years old.

A memorial service will be held at Christy Smith Funeral Homes, Morningside Chapel, Sioux City, IA, on Thursday, October 9th at 2 pm. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the memorial service on Thursday. Interment will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, Sioux City, IA.

Loretta Jane DeForest was born in Oto, Iowa, on September 17, 1936, to Roberta (Litterick) and Orville DeForest. She grew up attending Sioux City Community Schools and graduated from East High School midterm in January of 1955. Loretta married John M. Smith on August 8th, 1955, after he returned home from serving in the army in Korea. The couple had five children: Daryl, Kim, Jamie, Jody, and Mark.

Loretta faithfully raised and cared for her family. As a homemaker, Loretta participated in the arts of canning, baking bread, sewing, making the kids’ favorite cookies, especially peanut butter cookies sparkling with a dusting of sugar on top, and producing an abundance of homemade treats and candies at Christmas. The snack drawer was always full. Grandchildren remember Loretta’s homemade egg noodles for delicious chicken soups.

Loretta began working outside the home in the early 1980s. She loved caring for others and spent nineteen years working at Matney Nursing Home in Sioux City, IA.

Survivors include her two sons, Daryl Smith of Sioux City and Mark (Stephanie) Smith of Sioux Falls, SD; and three daughters, Kim Conrad of Newcastle, NE, Jamie (Calvin) Molt of Lee’s Summit, MO, Jody Sandine of Dakota Dunes, SD; 10 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

Loretta was preceded in death by her parents; husband, John Smith; and her sister, Ione Hoeft.