SMITH, Orpha 1899-1991

SMITH, LYNCH, KINSINGER

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 1/14/2016 at 14:30:38

Ortha Smith Services Friday

Ortha Smith, 92, of Loma Linda, CA, former resident of Grundy county, passed away on July 20 at the Loma Linda Community Hospital.

Funeral services will be held Friday, July 26, at 2 p.m. at the Engelkes-Abels Funeral Home in Grundy Center.

Burial will be in the Rose Hill Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 3-9 p.m. on Thursday, July 25, and from 9 a.m. until the service on Friday.

A memorial fund has been established.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 25 July 1991, pg 3

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Orpha Smith Services Held

Orpha Leora Lynch Smith, 92, passed away peacefully at the Loma Linda Community Hospital in Loma Linda, California, on July 20, 1991.

Funeral services were held Friday, July 26, 1991, at 2:00 p.m. at the Engelkes-Abels Funeral Home in Grundy Center with Pastor Gary W. Candlish officiating.

Casket bearers were David Colin, Charles Thoren, William Pierce, Robert Ingersoll, Andrew Brown, Terrence Ross, William Jones and Jon David Ross.

Interment was in the Rose Hill Cemetery, Grundy Center.

Orpha was born on April 26, 1899, to Thomas Jefferson and Mary Catherine Kinsinger Lynch. She was the eighth child in a family of eleven children.

Orpha had a happy childhood growing up with her ten brothers and sisters on the family farm south of Grundy Center. She attended Palermo #8 school and graduated from eighth grade. She loved school and longed to go to high school but she did not enjoy that privilege. At age sixteen she went along with her girlfriend, Alva Wood Meyers, to Cedar Rapids where Alva attended Cedar Rapids Business College. Orpha took an exam and was accepted into the college even though she had not attended high school. Those were happy days for her and she often reminisced about them and enjoyed sharing her experiences with her children and grandchildren. While attending college, Orpha became a member of the Calvary Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids. Her faith in the Lord gave her strength throughout her long life.

Orpha was united in marriage in January of 1919 at the Baptist Parsonage in Grundy Center to Fred Thomas Smith, son of Isaac and Ella Bettinger Smith. To this union four children were born: LaDean (Mrs. Floyd Ingersoll, Hemet, CA, deceased, 1980); Avis (Mrs. Harold "Red" Jones, Redlands, CA); Fred Thomas, Jr., LaVerne, CA; Marlys (Mrs. D. J. Ross, Ames, IA). The young couple started their married life farming the Smith family farm north of Grundy Center. In later years Orpha, Fred, and family moved to Grundy Center where they continued to live until Fred passed away in 1969. At that time, after living seventy-seven years in Grundy County, Orpha moved to California where three of her children resided.

Orpha was preceded in death by her husband, Fred, 1969; her oldest child, LaDean, 1980; her parents, Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Lynch; two sisters, Nora (Mrs. Charles Jontz); and Vannie (Mrs. Morris Pierce); seven brothers, Earl, Bert, Harry, Lewis, Ralph, Ross, and Myron; and two grandsons, Kyle Smith (1954), and Harold Jones, Jr. (1957).

She is survived by her daughters Avis and Marlys and by her son, Fred Jr.; 12 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and 7 great-great-grandchildren; one sister, Myrna (Mrs. Lee Thoren); many nieces and nephews; and a host of friends.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 1 August 1991, pg 2