Brenda Smith

Brenda enjoyed growing up in a small town in Missouri. She had many stories of playing in the creek near the mill, singing soprano in the church choir and competing in solo vocal contests in high school. Her brush with fame was at a high school UIL contest where she came in second only to “Brenda Lee”. She remembered her typing and music teachers pushing her to do her best. She was very detail-oriented and left high school typing 100 words per minute without errors. She met her future husband after church on a Sunday. He had come home from the Navy to visit his parents. He was the son of the pastor at her church. “Son of a preacher man” later became one of her favorite songs. After seeing Jerry in the pew for the first time, she intended to set him up with one of her friends. However, an hour after she got back to her home from service that day, he knocked on her front door to ask her out on a date. She was stunned. When she returned to the dinner table to finish lunch with her parents, she couldn’t eat. Her mom and dad both agreed - “she’s gone”. They dated, married and started their new lives in Tulsa where her husband attended Tulsa University and Brenda gave birth to their first child, a son. In the early years, they moved between Tulsa, Dallas, Atlanta, and Detroit. Their final career stop for thirty years was Dallas. She gave birth to their daughter in Dallas. Brenda always found a position, as Executive Assistant, at or near the top of the executive ladder because of the skills ingrained by her high school teachers. She had fun working for a small AM country radio station during the height of “Outlaw Country”. She spent the majority of her career as an Executive Assistant in the big ad agencies in Dallas at the time, J Walter Thompson, DDB Needham and Tracey Locke, and finished her career at a local agency Gleason & Calise. She made and kept a few wonderful life-long friends during her career and mentoring of other co-workers. She and her husband retired to Arizona and enjoyed thirteen years with new friends and traveled throughout the West. They returned “home” to Texas in 2010 to be close to family and great-grandchildren. Brenda loved children. She loved babysitting her baby granddaughter and watch her play in the Tupperware drawer. Her heart melted for her new great-grandson when he gave her a big hug and kiss one day completely by surprise. She loved his hugs. Brenda was the ultimate “super-mom” when the term was first coined. She worked full time, raised two children, was the “CFO” for the household, kept an immaculate house, put a meal on the table every evening and loved decorating – especially for Christmas. She loved to dance, whether the jitterbug with her husband or the Texas Push in the 60s at the Longhorn Ballroom or two-stepping to Waylon or Willie. She was an avid Cowboys fan. She loved spoiling and taking care of those she loved and this was the job she took most seriously. She had an easy great sense of humor and easy laugh. We will miss her hugs and laughter.