Smits, Sharon (Mrs. James A.)1955-2006

SMITS, VANPEURSEM, MOL

Posted By: Paul Van Dyke-Volunteer
Date: 8/30/2014 at 22:58:39

Source: North West Iowa Review (

Born: October 26, 1955
Died: October 23, 2006

Sharon Faye Smits, 50, Orange City, died Monday, October 23, at her residences.

Services will be at 10:30 A.M. today (Saturday, October 28) at Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City, with the Rev. Jonathan Opgenorth officiating. Burial will be prior to the service at West Lawn Cemetery in Orange City. There will be a prayer service at 9:30 A.M. today at Oolman Funeral Home in Orange City.

Sharon Smits, daughter of Neal C. and Grace (Van Peursem) Mol, was born October 26, 1955, in Sioux Center. She was raised in Sioux Center, where she attended the Christian elementary and graduated from Sioux Center High School. She then received a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern College in Orange City. She married James Allen Smits on June 14, 1975, in Sioux Center. They first made their home in Maurice and later in Escondido, California. They then returned to Maurice and moved in 1988 to Ontario, California. She was a director of education and youth at First Reformed Church in Maurice and at Lincoln Avenue Reformed Church in Pomona, California. They settled in 1992 in Orange City, where she was a counselor at the Domestic Violence Aid Center. She then earned her master’s degree in social work at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. More recently, she was with the Siouxland Mental Health Center and Bethesda Christian Counseling.

She was a member of Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City, where she served as a care elder, had been a youth leader, and participated in a small group Bible study. She enjoyed camping and singing by the camp fire, boating, going to the beach, shelling, watching sunsets (especially over water), going for walks and playing games. She loved the fall season, with its leaves and colors, and she liked sewing and crocheting.

Survivors include her husband, James “Jim” Allen Smits; five children, Angela, and Insoo Kim of Chicago, Joel Smits of Urbandale, Andrea and Steve Hydeen of Bellevue, Nebraska, Maria Smits and her fiancé’, Tyler Simmelink of Orange City, and Melinda Smits of Orange City; three grandchildren;, and two brothers and a sister, Cliff and Connie Mol of Huntington, West Virginia, Wanda and Dean Ulmer of Mitchell, South Dakota, and Verlyn and Barb Mol, of Brunswick, Ohio.

Memorials may be directed to Orange City Area Home Health and Hospice, Caring Bridge and Angel Flight.