Carrol Ann Smith

Carrol Ann was born on August 27, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas to Jube Augustus and Kathryn Jewel Price Reding. The oldest of three sisters, she was raised in San Antonio and earned her teaching degree at Texas Woman’s University.

Upon graduating, Carrol Ann moved to Inglewood, California to teach elementary school. It was there that she met her future husband, Leonard Herman Smith, who was living in the same apartment complex.

Carrol Ann and Leonard were married on August 19, 1961 in San Antonio, and in 1964 the couple relocated to Ventura, California where Leonard pursued his law career and Carrol Ann continued teaching. When they started their family, she became a full-time homemaker to her three boys and found this to be the best career of all. She spent the rest of her life enthusiastically involved in the lives of her sons and their families, mastering their favorite recipes and always creating unique and personal gifts that instantly became heirlooms.

When her boys were older, Carrol Ann went back to work as a travel agent, and soon after opened her own agency, Love to Travel. She retired full time in the early 1990s and continued traveling the world with Leonard. They visited all seven continents, and even after Leonard’s sudden death in 2001, she continued to plan family trips to Nuevo Vallarta, the homes of her sisters in Texas, and a special Christmas celebration at the Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite. In 2007, Carrol Ann and her son took a once in a lifetime excursion on a nuclear ice breaker from Murmansk, Russia to the North Pole. She loved seeing the world and making new friends along the way.

Throughout her life Carrol Ann was an amazing cook and avid reader who loved to garden, sew and crochet. Most of all, she loved spending time with her family and was a true treasure to all who knew her.

Carrol Ann was preceded in death by her husband, sister Elizabeth Rae Gregory, and sister Andrea Marsh. She will be greatly missed by her sons, Gregory (Susan) Smith of Placerville, Calif., Christopher Smith of Ventura, and Alex Smith (Michael) of Ojai, Calif.

A service will be held on Friday, September 2, 2016, 11:00 a.m., at Ted Mayr Funeral Home, 3150 Loma Vista Road, in Ventura. Interment will follow at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Ted Mayr Funeral Home. Condolences may be sent to TedMayrFuneralHome.com