SMITH, Glenda 'Kay' 1940 - 2023

SMITH, LISK, THOMPSON, BABCOCK

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 5/21/2023 at 14:17:39

"Southeast Iowa Union / Fairfield Ledger"
Friday, May 12, 2023
Page 6, Column 2

GLENDA "KAY" SMITH
Fountain Hills, AZ

Glenda "Kay" SMITH, who as a young girl learned the business of beauty playing in her mother's beauty shop in the family home on Maple Street in Fairfield, Iowa, and who would eventually build her own salon business and be recognized by the Governor as the top small business owner in the State of Illinois, died May 2, 2023, at her home in Fountain Hills, Arizona. She was 83.

Kay, born in Fairfield, was the daughter of Glenn and Helen LISK. Glenn was an electrician and the elected Auditor of Jefferson County, Iowa. Helen operated her in-home beauty parlor. Together, they owned the local Dairy Queen, and later, another in Waverly, Iowa. Entrepreneurship, then, came naturally to Kay, as did learning the ins-and-outs of the beauty business that played out every day in the family home.

After graduating from Fairfield High School in 1958, Kay graduated from the Burlington, Iowa, Beauty Academy in 1959, the same year she married her high school sweetheart, Dale SMITH. It was also in 1959 the couple moved to Ames, Iowa, where Dale was knee-deep in his Graduate studies at Iowa State University. Ames is where Kay worked in a local salon, and where they welcomed a baby girl, Holly, in 1960, and a son, Rodney, in 1962. By 1965, Dale was a Ph.D., and the family moved to Naperville, Illinois, when Dale began working at Argonne National Laboratory. Kay, a busy young mother, worked part-time at a local beauty salon until her birthday, April 19, 1972, when she and Dale opened the first Elegante Salon at 111 W. Jackson Street in downtown Naperville. Elegante Salons would eventually grow to include three full-service locations, and with the addition of day spas at each, at least 700 people were employed there over the 45 years Kay owned and managed the business, from 1972 to 2017.

In 2002, because of her unwavering commitment to excellence, innovation and community service, Kay was recognized as the Illinois Governor's Small Business Person of the Year. A past president of the Chicago Cosmetology Association, and active member of Cosmetology Chicago, the Illinois Cosmetology Association, the National Cosmetology Association and the Naperville Chamber of Commerce, Kay was named Small Business Person of the Year by the Naperville Chamber in 2001.

Kay is remembered for her community involvement and generous support of Naperville non-profits like Little Friends Workshop, the St. Baldrick's Foundation and Locks of Love.

She and Dale helped establish Naperville's First Christian Church. Not only is Kay remembered for her generosity to her employees, helping them financially and emotionally through the upheavals of life, but for offering benefits like health insurance, medical benefits and generous holiday bonuses that were unheard of in the beauty industry at the time. A pioneer of female entrepreneurship, Kay's greatest joys in life were her family, her faith and the keen business sense that allowed hundreds of women who worked with her through the years the financial independence and security to achieve their own dreams, while doing fulfilling, meaningful and creative work.

Kay was a warm and loving mother and grandmother, and loved doting on her grandchildren, who were the pride of her later life.

In addition to her husband, Dale, Kay is survived by her daughter, Holly THOMPSON, and son, Rod SMITH; grandchildren, Brittany SMITH, Brooke SMITH, Paige SMITH, Will THOMPSON and Jack THOMPSON; sister, Marlene BABCOCK and brother, Gene LISK.

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*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

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