Nadine Capwell Smith, 85, died Sunday, July 22, at her daughter’s home in Columbus. She was born at home in Pittsboro to Glen Allen Dorsey and Alice Riddle Capwell, the second of four sisters. She got a teacher’s degree from Blue Mountain College, and taught first at Bruce and later in Louisville for many years. Funeral services will be Friday, July 27 at 1:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church in Louisville. Visitation will be Friday at the church from noon until service time. Interment will be in Pittsboro Cemetery. Porter Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
She married Sam Ellard Smith Sr., of Pittsboro, in 1956. She leaves four children: Bridget Smith (Steve) Pieschel, Sam Ellard (Kate) Smith, Jr., and Susan Smith (Jim) McAdory. She also leaves nine grandchildren, Nicholas John Pieschel, Laura Pieschel Rose, William Dorsey (Saki) Pieschel, Alexander Smith Pieschel, Alice Pauline Pieschel, Cortney Marie McAdory, Margaret Capwell Smith, Mary Eleanor Smith, and Samuel Steinriede Smith. Finally, she is survived by four great-grandchildren: Thomas Carter Rose, Eliza Katherine Pieschel, Toma Jimbo Pieschel and Oliver John Pieschel. She is survived by sisters: Patricia Capwell Cannon and Hazel Christine Russell, plus a host of nieces, nephews and friends who loved her and who will miss her.
She was a gifted and influential teacher. Many, many of them have recently contacted her children saying “Your mother saved my life”, “Your mother made me love school”, “Your mother never had a favorite child. She loved everybody, and she believed everyone could learn.” She was good. She was kind. She made differences in lives. As described by poet Paula Fox, she was that teacher who “when asked which subjects she liked to teach, she answered this way and smiled...’It’s not the subjects that matter...it’s all about teaching the CHILD.’ ”
Memorials may be made to Winston Academy or First Baptist Church or The MIND Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, mindcenter@umc.edu.
To sign the guestbook, please go to www.porterfuneralhome.net