Fifty-year Malibu resident Marion Smith died Feb. 6 after a bout with the flu. She was 95.
Smith was born Jan. 19, 1912 in Foochow (now Soochow), China to Methodist medical missionaries Lee Ethel Ward Gossard and Dr. Jesse Earl Gossard. Some affectionately called her “Mern” (from mern-yang in Foochow dialect). She was captain of the women’s field hockey Team at Shanghai American School.
She met Rulon “Bob” Smith at UC Berkeley at the International House in 1937. They lived in Santa Monica for the first 20 years of their 55-year marriage, and attended the First Methodist Church. When the Smith children were toddlers, their mother built a tree house, jungle gym and playhouse for the nursery school she and a group of local mothers founded.
Smith designed and oversaw the construction of her home on 5.6 acres overlooking the Malibu ocean. The Smiths and their three children-Richard, Marion and Robert-moved to Malibu in 1957. Marion Smith retired in 1978 after 21 years with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District as a school nurse. At Lincoln Junior High School, Smith’s office was a favorite spot for students.
She was a horsewoman, gardener and prolific painter. Smith was a member of the Malibu Garden Club and the Malibu Art Association during the 1980s, and a docent at the Adamson House during the 1990s. Smith and her husband enjoyed growing fruits and vegetables.
Smith was preceded in death by her husband. She is survived by her three children, daughter-in-law Jennie, grandchildren Roger, Laurel Smith-Taylor, Beau Baldwin (and his wife Camilla) and Danika Weber (and her husband Jonas), six great grandchildren and her sister, Dorothy Gaylord.
Smith was buried at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.