Clara Millicent (Chase) Smith

Clara Millicent Chase Smith, age 89 passed away peacefully of natural causes on April 16, 2013 in Cut Bank, MT.  She was a resident of the Beehive Assisted Living home there since January of 2012. Whitted Funeral Chapel of Shelby/Cut Bank is in charge of the arrangements for her cremation.  Condolences may be sent to her family and friends through Lucy Walter at HC 72, Box 75, Browning, MT 59427. Donations in her name made to the Babb United Methodist Church may be mailed to that address, too. A celebration of her life memorial will be held later in the spring.  She wanted the service to be held when her neighbors at Duck Lake in Montana had returned to their summer residences for the season.  The memorial will be held at the Babb United Methodist Church. The exact date will be announced at a later date.

Clara Chase Smith was born in the fruit farming community of Milton-Freewater, Oregon on November 30, 1923.  She joined a brother and two sisters.  After graduating from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon in 1946 she married Ian Smith and moved to Montana.  She spent twenty-four years teaching, science, health and girl’s physical education and coaching girl’s track and field in the Cut Bank School System.  She was an active member of the Montana Education Association and the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation and was active in reviving sports competition for girls in the high school level.

Clara retired from teaching in 1974 and moved with her husband to Duck Lake to pursue her own recreation.  Besides fishing and watching the birds at her feeders, she enjoyed hobbies of sewing, gardening, beadwork, card games and scrabble.   She was an active member of the Babb United Methodist Church and served for many years as the parish-wide treasurer. “

In 2012 Clara received a plaque for being the first women in Montana to organize and travel with a girl’s track and field team. She was recognized as a member of the Hall of Fame bythe Montana Coaches Association.  She felt especially proud that anywhere she went in the Cut Bank area someone would come up and say  “I remember you.  You were my teacher, coach or co-worker at Cut Bank High School.”

She was preceded in death by her husband of 63 years, Ian (Smitty) Smith, by her parents and by all of her siblings.

Clara (and Ian) are survived by several nieces and nephews and their families. Sharon Brandt and Kay Snowhook of Sequim WA, Marilynn Cobo of Portland, OR, Janet Wolf of Missoula, MT, John Van Cleve of Whitehall, MT, and Ted (T, J.) Madsen of Sacramento, CA.