Nancy Josephine Smith Thomas

1935 - 2024

Nancy Josephine Smith Thomas

Dec 24, 1935 - Nov 17, 2024

Nancy Josephine Smith Thomas, an independent scholar and Christmas historian, died peacefully at her Winston-Salem home on October 17, 2024.

On Christmas Eve 1935, a nurse at North Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem handed Nancy to her mother, announcing, "Well Mrs. Smith you have just got yourself a real live baby doll." Hazel Laura Oliver Smith formerly of Sparta, GA, and Charles Milton Smith formerly of Stokes County, NC, recounted this story each year on her Christmas Eve birthday. Thus began Nancy's love of the Christmas holiday, which she celebrated in her collections of ornaments, decorations, and ephemera and in her writing, most notably Moravian Christmas in the South (2007, published by Old Salem, Inc. and distributed by UNC Press), a book that also chronicled traditions of her beloved Moravian hometown.

An avid student, Nancy attended Greensboro Senior High School and graduated from Wake Forest University cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received a master's degree from West Virginia College of Graduate Studies, now part of Marshall University.

It was the Mad Men era, and Nancy like other young women at the time fantasized about becoming a magazine editor. Upon graduation, she boarded the train for New York City, where she roomed at the YWCA and landed a job at Grosset & Dunlap Publishers. Friends introduced her to a young army officer and graduate student named Charlie Thomas, also a North Carolina native. After a glorious summer courting in New York's museums, parks, and restaurants, they married. The couple settled in Charleston, WV, where Nancy gave birth to a daughter, Melanie and a son, John. An engaged mother, Nancy always centered the (very punctual!) family dinner time around conversations with her children.

During their 24 years in Charleston, WV, and while Charlie was implementing the first computer technology at Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), Nancy learned about Appalachian culture and edited an Appalachian-themed cookbook called Mountain Measures published by the Charleston, WV, Junior League (her first 100,000 copy publication!). Nancy's career of teaching languages (including Latin, French, and English) at schools in Winston-Salem (RJ Reynolds High School) and Charleston, WV (John Adams Junior High School), began when she participated in US government summer language institutes in the 1960s. She received scholarships to attend two nine-week institutes in Baton Rouge, LA, and Besancon, France. Later she escorted WV students to three-week immersions in the French language and culture in the province of Brittany at Loctudy.

Before moving to Winston Salem, Nancy and Charlie spent six years in Redding, CT, exploring historic New England from their 1768 house (Able Morehouse), which was standing when the British marched by on their way to Danbury during the Revolutionary War.

Relocating to Winston-Salem, NC, Charlie traveled the world as a computer consultant while Nancy took art classes at Surrey Community College where she began creating genre paintings and portraits. She became deeply involved with the Moravian living history museum, Old Salem Museum and Gardens including the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), work that became a life's passion.

Involved in many community organizations, clubs, and projects, Nancy especially treasured a special group of friends called The Birthday Girls Lunch Bunch, started by a dear friend Joyce Kingman, the United Methodist Centenary Church ladies of Circle 3, and Old Town Country Club.

Nancy and Charlie were known for their warm hospitality and especially Christmas festivities in their Winston-Salem home, a historical replica of a house in Colonial Virginia, featured on the 2018 Forsyth County/Winston-Salem Garden Council tour. Its flower-filled garden with a koi pond and whimsical garden decorations delighted local children (who always had an open invitation) and offered respite for family, friends, and neighbors. Nancy and Charlie also enjoyed hosting family and friends at their tree farm in Stokes County, once the property of Nancy's ancestor Colonel Jack Martin, who built the renowned Rock House in Stokes County in about 1785.

Around the time of the Thomas's 60th wedding anniversary in 2018, soon after a diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis, Nancy began to ponder Robert Frost's poem: "The Road Not Taken." At their celebration, Nancy reflected on life and the "ties that bind us all as we travel our roads." She recalled treasured memories, including the wedding of their daughter, Melanie, held in the garden on her and Charlie's wedding anniversary and the engagement of son John also on their wedding anniversary. She reflected on the importance of family and friends, and of making wise and thoughtful choices as we decide what roads to take in life.

Nancy is survived by her loving husband, John Charles Thomas of Franklin, NC; and their two cherished children and spouses: Laura Melanie Thomas (Andreas Aufenanger) of Lansdale, PA; John Charles Thomas, Jr. (Amanda Minger) of Oreland, PA; and two grandchildren: Tessa Hazel Thomas and Abigail Virginia Thomas of Oreland. PA, who filled her life with joy.

A Celebration of Life will be held at Centenary United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, on Friday, December 6th at 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to pulmonaryfibrosis.org. Online condolences may be shared at www.salemfh.com.

Salem Funeral & Cremation Service

2951 Reynolda Rd., Winston-Salem, NC 27106