Harriett Margaret (Diver) Smith

Harriett Margaret (Diver) Smith, age 97, of Knoxville, Tennessee passed away at NHC Cavette Hill in Farragut, TN. Harriett was born Harriett Margaret Diver on February 11, 1927 in Baltimore, MD at home, in a house designed by her mother in Homeland, MD, one of our nation’s earliest suburban developments. Impacted by the Great Depression, her family left the original home and moved to live above a restaurant and bar that her grandmother operated. The clientele was mostly made up of dock and ship workers in the Baltimore Harbor who walked past the venue to and from work.

Harriett was a young teenager when Pearl Harbor was bombed and December 7 has always been an important date for her. She attended Mount Saint Agnes College in Baltimore (which later merged into Loyola University) and spent many years working as a medical technologist. In 1958 she married Cordie Ralph Smith who was a boarder at Harriett’s mother’s Baltimore row house. Harriett spent many years raising 4 children and enjoyed digging and planting in her beautiful garden. She especially loved purple irises. In 2024 we celebrated her 97th birthday and she was surrounded by friends, neighbors and family. Harriett, in her final months, enjoyed time outside wearing one of her favorite hats, identifying trees and plants, searching for the moon and singing some of her favorite songs. We are all feeling the loss but also feeling grateful to have been able to be with her for so many years.

Harriett is preceded in death by her parents, Thomas Reed Diver and Lillian Helldoerfer Diver and her sisters, Mary Diver Rauchfuss and Anna Diver Dietz. She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Cordie Ralph Smith; children, Anita Everett (Allen Everett), Janet Emmrich (Kevin Emmrich), Barbara Wunschel and Thomas Smith (Roxanne Smith); grandchildren, Sam Everett, Margaret Everett, Kelly Emmrich, Elizabeth Cook (Rob Cook), Hannah Wunschel, Rebecca Longhany (Kevin Longhany), Hayden Smith (Sydney Smith), Audrey Smith and Olivia Smith; great grandchildren, Charlotte Longhany and Genevieve Longhany.

The family would like to thank the staff at NHC Cavette Hill and the team at Caris Healthcare.

A visitation for Harriet will be held Saturday, December 28, 2024 at 1:00pm at Berry Highland Memorial Funeral Home, with a funeral service to follow at 2:00pm. Harriett and Ralph were members of All Saints Catholic Parish and the service will be lead by Father Douglas Owens and Deacon Pat Nakagawa of All Saints Catholic Parish. A graveside service will occur at 3:00pm inside Berry Highland Memorial Cemetery following services.