Louise T. Smith

1918 - 2023

Louise T. Smith of Bethesda, 105, died December 29, 2023, in Bennington, VT. Her husband Ken predeceased her and her son, Daniel W. Smith of Woods Hole, MA, survives her, as do many nieces and nephews.

With her sharp wit and talent, Lou wrote original lyrics and composed music throughout her life. Lou's "Ballad of a Bold, Bad Man" is in the Wellesley College Songbook and is also a favorite at Camp Pemigewassett, an all-boys camp in New Hampshire. It tells the story of the Harvard man who disguised himself as a Wellesley senior woman to win the college's May 1 hoop race (and then got thrown into the lake). It is still sung at Wellesley reunions 85 years later.

Lou was born in Boston on December 5, 1918, and grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. She earned an undergraduate degree in English literature from Wellesley College and an M.A. in child development from the University of Chicago. During and after WW II she did relief work in Marseille, France, and at an American Friends Service Committee-run refugee camp in the Apulia region of Italy. Later she worked in daycare centers and preschools in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Bethesda, returning to teach two-year-olds at a cooperative nursery school in her sixties.

A co-founder of Washington's Wellesley Literary Circle, in 2017 Lou received the Jessie C. McDonald Award from the Washington Wellesley Club for being an inspiration to the Washington-area Wellesley community.

A memorial to celebrate Lou's life will be held at 1 p.m. on April 20 at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, 1 Westmoreland Circle NW, with a reception to follow from 2 to 4 p.m. All are welcome at either or both. Donations in her memory may be made to Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ or to the American Friends Service Committee.