Sallie Lou Johnson Smithey

Sallie J. Smithey, nee Sallie Lou Johnson, passed away on May 17, 2024, in Montgomery Village, Maryland. at the age of 92. Sallie was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Delos Roger Johnson a sports journalist and one time staff correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, and Naomi Florence Dickerson, an alterations seamstress who later trained and worked as a “draftsman” for the Army Mapping Service, in Washington, D.C. and retired after a career teaching algebra at Office of Indian Education schools near Roswell, New Mexico.

Sallie attended Schenley High School in Pittsburgh before relocating from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C. with her mother and sister after her parents divorced. Sallie graduated as salutatorian of the 1948 class at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. and attended Miner Teacher’s College (now the University of the District of Columbia) for two years where she studied Early Childhood Education. While attending college she met and fell in love with Dr. Philip Smithey, then an intern at the Howard University College of Medicine, Freedmen’s Hospital. Together they embarked on a journey that took them from the deep South to the Midwest before settling in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Sallie was a passionate and gifted artist, a talented vocalist, and an avid reader. She was a lifelong learner, continuing her studies in creative writing, art history, painting, and other studio arts at Wilkes College after her children had grown and left home. Sallie had a deep love for the arts: opera, theatre, ballet, poetry, painting, and architectures of the world which she indulged in the historic sites, museums, theaters and other venues in Houston, New York, and Washington D.C. as well as in travels which took her to London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Berlin, Lichtenstein, Morocco, and the Dominican Republic.

Sallie worshipped at Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowship halls in Milwaukee, WI, Wilkes-Barre, PA, and Silver Spring, MD. She was a Unitarian Universalist Sunday School teacher who nurtured in young people strong beliefs in social justice and higher education. A staunch advocate of women’s right to vote, Sallie was actively involved in the League of Women Voters.

As a mother who encouraged high academic achievement in her seven children, Sallie considered each of her children having earned post-graduate and professional degrees in their respective fields to be a source of great personal fulfillment and accomplishment in keeping a promise she made to her late husband before he passed away in 1976.

A beloved daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Sallie is survived by her sister, Sylvia J. Carroll of Houston, Texas, her children Philippa N. Smithey, PhD of Chesapeake, Virginia. Thomas W. Smithey, MEng, MBA of Silver Spring, Maryland. Marian P. Smithey, BSN, MSHP of Hyattsville, Maryland, Tracey E. Smithey, MD of Tampa, Florida, and Leslie F. Smithey, DDS, MPH of Briarcliff Manor, New York.

She is also survived by her granddaughters: Stephanie A. Smithey, Leslie E. Smithey, Patria A. Smithey, and Gabriela D. Johnson; her grandsons: William A. Jefferson, David Jefferson, Philip A.J. Smithey, Joseph T. Smithey, Jon P.J. Smithey, and Jared C.J. Lane; as well as her great-granddaughters, Janay Jefferson, Charlotte Lane, and Elizabeth Lane.

Sallie’s absence will be heartfelt by her cousins Carolyn Dickerson, Glenarden, MD and Joan Dickerson, Pittsburgh, PA; daughter-in-law Donna Holder Smithey, Silver Spring, MD; son-in-law Ronald Cheatham, Chesapeake, VA; niece Ashani Motisola, Washington, DC; and other friends and family members too numerous to list.

Sallie was a beloved member of her Sunrise Montgomery Village retirement community known by staff, fellow residents, and friends, for her energetic and enthusiastic participation in daily group activities, especially dance class; her creative paintings and other works of art; and her unceasingly positive outlook on life.

Sallie was preceded in death by her husband, Philip J. Smithey, MD, her daughter, Phyllis N. Smithey, JD, and her son, Philip D. Smithey, MD, as well as her parents, Naomi D. Johnson, and Delos R. Johnson.

Once described as “the loveliest of people and best of friends” Sallie will be dearly missed by all who know her. Her legacy of love, dedication to family, and passion for the arts will be remembered forever. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Hines Rinaldi Funeral Home of Silver Spring, MD