Sara E. Smith

Sara E. Smith, 81, of Blandinsville, completed her life of service at 10:54 a.m. Saturday, December 18, 2021 at Wesley Village Healthcare Center in Macomb surrounded by her loving family.
Sara was the first child born in McDonough County in 1940 on January 2, 1940. She was delivered by her uncle, Dr. Henry Hermetet, in the Phelps Hospital to Russell E. and Susan J. (Hermetet) Good.
She graduated from Western High School in 1957 and Western Illinois University in 1962 with a Bachelors degree in Teaching. After teaching English in Mt. Sterling for one year, she married Paul Conlee. They divorced and she and her two young daughters moved to inner city Baltimore, Maryland where she taught for five years. Returning to Macomb in 1971, she met and married her best friend, Richard D. Smith on April 28, 1972.
She was a sixty year member of the Eastern Star, serving as Worthy Matron and completed her service as secretary. She was a past member and Mother Advisor of the Rainbow for Girls, secretary of the McDonough County Retired Teachers Association, and vice president of the Blandinsville-Hire Library Board.
She absolutely loved teaching English and retired in 2003 from West Prairie High School. Prior to that she taught at Northwestern High School and Plymouth High School. Sara was emphatic about the proper spoken language of grammar, sentence structure and essay writing. She taught many children, including her own, Shakespeare and other acclaimed novels which broadened the mind and spirit. Sara was a magnificent oratorical speaker and was often asked to recite passages during church services. She was a prodigious reader and loved teaching English, however, having to listen to incorrect grammar may have been a contributing factor in her death.
Sara had many childhood friends, whom she has stayed in touch with over the years. With all of her activities and teaching she touched many lives, including those she met briefly near the end of her life. She loved her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and sister very much.
She was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters, Julianne Good  and Kathy Farley and a great-grandson, Liam McDaniel. 
She is survived by her husband of almost fifty years; a sister, Janet Prince of Sykesville, Maryland; three daughters, Beth (David) Knottnerus of Mendota, Illinois, Cheryl (John) McDaniel of Havana, Illinois and April Smith of Washington, Illinois; three sons, Stuart (Sheryl) Smith of Washington, Illinois, Craig (Erica) Smith of Madison, Alabama and Timothy (Elizabeth) Smith of LaHarpe, Illinois; a niece, Elizabeth (Prince) Neylon who was also raised in the home; sixteen grandchildren and two great-grandsons called her “Grams”.
Cremation rites have been accorded. A Memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, December 29, 2021 at the Clugston-Tibbitts Funeral Home in Blandinsville with Reverend Gordon Blankenship officiating. Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at the funeral home with Eastern Star services being held at 4:30 p.m.
Memorials may be made to the Rainbow Girls Bushnell Assembly #36 or Blandinsville-Hire Library.
You may leave condolences and sign the guest book online at clugston-tibbitts.com.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Sara E. Smith, please visit our floral store.