Mrs. Pauline Albertine Leontine Leveillee Smith passed away on May 12, 2018, at the age of 87. She was known as Mother, Mom, Ms. Pauline, and by many as Mémère. She was born on Sept.  16, 1930, in Manchester, New Hampshire, the daughter of Leon Leveillee and Albertine Boutin Leveillee. She graduated from St. Joseph’s High School for Girls in 1948, and completed her education at Hesser Business College in Manchester. She married Jack Smith from Montana on April 18, 1953, in St. Mathews Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1950, to work for Civil Service in the Department of Defense starting in the Navy Department. In 1951. she transferred to the Office of the Chief of Ordinance in the Pentagon, and then joined the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army in 1954. She was awarded The Department of the Army Civilian Sustained Superior Performance Award, the highest civilian recognition at that time, for her service in the Surgeon General’s office for the period 1955 and 1956, at which time she resigned to a full-time career as an army wife and mother of four children.

During the following 20 years she lived in Virginia, the Panama Canal Zone for four and one-half years, Flushing, Long Island, New York, Georgia, Quito, Ecuador, for three and one-half years, and Georgia again. Mrs. Smith has lived in Americus since 1976, and was an active parishioner at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church.

A memorial and prayer service will take place at 10 a.m. on Friday morning, May 18 in the chapel at Hancock Funeral Home on Lee Street in Americus. A visitation will follow. Her cremains will later be interred at Andersonville National Historic Cemetery.

 

She was predeceased by her husband of 65 years, Jack H. Smith; her parents and a sister, Lorraine Vincent of Allenstown, N.H. Survivors include two daughters and son-in law, Donna-Marie and Tom Wetherell of Seneca, S.C., and Debra Lynne Smith and Shan of Mobile, Ala.; two sons and daughter-in-law, Wayne B. and Shelley Smith of Grenada, Miss., and Bruce A. Smith of Chelsea, Ala.; one sister, Claire Partridge of Fernandina Beach, Fla.; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, as well as several nieces and a nephew.

 

Memorials may be made to the USO, P.O. Box 96860, Washington DC 20077-7677 or to Saint Mary’s Catholic Church Building Fund, 322 South Lee Street, Americus, GA 31709.

To sign our online guestbook and express your condolences to the family, please visit www.hancockfuneralhomeinc.com

 

Hancock Funeral Home, 427 South Lee Street Americus, Georgia 31709, is honored to be entrusted with these arrangements for Mrs. Pauline Albertine Leontine Leveillee Smith.