Sarah Jane Reed Smythe’s nearly a century of living, ended in her sleep March 27.
Sarah was raised mainly by her grandparents, who died when she was quite young, was
placed in the Cherokee Boarding School, speaking only Cherokee, continuing her education at Haskell, now a university. On graduation, she continued taking business courses, graduating at 21. She then married Albert Ander, moving to California. They had three children: Patricia Louise, deceased; Jack, deceased; and Janice Faye, of Cherokee. Her sister-in-law Dena Ander, whom she dearly loved, lives and works in Miami, Okla.
Sarah’s family equaled five generations.
She married Jack Smythe in California before moving to Minnesota and Florida where they golfed and played cards. When he passed, she lived about 40 more years spending summers in Cherokee and Florida near her dearest friend, George Billman, for 17 year, deceased. Loving these Great Smoky Mountains, she returned her last 10 years to be amongst family and friends, living in Tsali Care.
Sarah Jane lived her philosophy, saying “go through life smooth and calm, and live it up!” Her last night with ‘her girl’, Janice, Sarah said , “lets sing” and she joined in to “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” with her niece Fran and husband, Sammy Walkingstick, nearby. Then Sarah said, “Let’s all get out of here”…and so she did soon thereafter having completely lived life to the hilt, making a better world by her kind behavior towards others.
Sarah Jane Smythe would say to all of us, “Keep A Song In Your Heart.”