Emma Jean Smith

Emma Jean Smith, 96, of Nicholson Twp., died Friday at Abington Manor in Clarks Summit. Her husband of 57 years, Otis W. Smith, died in 1996.

Born in Peckville, daughter of the late Harry E. and Blanche M. Oberts Young, Jean grew up on Colburn Avenue in Clarks Summit, graduating from Clarks Summit High School in 1935. She was also a graduate of Lackawanna Business College, where she studied accounting.

Jean and her husband moved to Nicholson Twp. in the 1950s, where they ran a dairy farm for more than 30 years. She enjoyed watercolor and oil painting, playing cards, sewing, cooking fantastic meals and baking beautifully decorated birthday cakes for her family. Jean built many finely crafted stone walls on the farm, gathering stones from the pastures. She built her final wall, using a hammer and chisel to crack the stones, at age 85. She was a longtime member and deaconess of the First Baptist Church of the Abingtons in Waverly Twp.

Surviving are a son, Gary Y. Smith and wife, Dale, Tunkhannock; a daughter, Sandra S. LaCoe and husband, William, Nicholson Twp.; nine grandchildren, Laura Anderson and husband, Roland, Tunkhannock; Steven Smith and wife, Marie, Retta; Tammy Jones, Meshoppen; Jennifer James and husband, Donny, Union Dale; Crystal Smith and husband, Brett, Lawton; Brandie Sue Smith, Nicholson Twp.; Brandon Smith, Nicholson Twp.; Jean Lynott and husband, Jerry, Nicholson Twp.; and Scott LaCoe and wife, Stephanie, Montrose; numerous great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. from the Lawrence E. Young Funeral Home, 418 S. State St., Clarks Summit, by the Rev. Ken Knapp, pastor of the First Baptist Church of the Abingtons, Waverly. Interment will follow in the Clarks Green Cemetery with her ashes of her beloved golden retriever, Maggie.

Friends may call Tuesday, 6 to 8 p.m.