Margaret P. Smith

Margaret “Margie” Pauline Panchelle Smith, 71, of Greensboro, GA passed away peacefully at her home on August 8, 2024. She succumbed to lung cancer after a well-fought four and a half years from the time of her diagnosis. A beloved sister, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She will be missed by all who knew her.

Margie was born in Fort Belvoir, VA to Joseph “Joe” Thomas and Mary Mac Calhoun Panchelle on September 26, 1952. Her father served in the U.S. Army and as a child, Margie traveled the world with her family including her half-brother Keith “Buck” Cooley as they were stationed in Germany and other overseas locations. They journeyed to Austria, Italy, and Japan before her father joined the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment, traditionally known as "The Old Guard", bringing them to Fort Myer Army Base and back near her birth location in Virginia. She lived in Springfield, VA and then Annandale, VA when she met her future husband Robert “Bob” Eugene Smith at a Friday night band and dance event at St. Albans Episcopal Church. They were teenagers, dated, married on May 30, 1968, and started a family at a young age. Margie attended Annandale High School and became a stay-at-home mother having a daughter, Janette Dawn Smith Stone and son, Robert “Bobby” Eugene Smith, Jr. As her children became older, Margie went into the workforce by joining the American National Red Cross in Alexandria, VA in the Accounts Payable Department. There she made some life-long friendships. After several years at the Red Cross, she was recruited by a former coworker to be a Buyer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Bethesda, MD which relocated to Chevy Chase, MD. While at HHMI for 19 years before her retirement from full-time work in 2005, she continued making other life-long friendships and also was a natural matchmaker setting up two of her coworkers on a date which led to their eventual marriage.

Margie loved traveling and she took her family on many trips to Ocean City, MD and Waynesville, NC to be with either family, friends, or both. Margie enjoyed spending time in the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina with her cousins both as a child and as an adult. Margie also loved the U.S. Virgin Islands and touring the Caribbean, including a weeklong private sailing excursion with her husband, brother, and sister-in-law. Later in life she enjoyed arranging family reunions and was always viewed as the organized planner and the one who got stuff done.

Margie moved from Alexandria, VA after 29 years to Severn, MD where she lived with her husband for 10 years until his retirement in 2013. They decided to leave the Washington D.C. metropolitan “rat race” and move to the south for a more relaxed pace of life at the Lake Oconee Del Webb retirement community in Greensboro, GA. Margie lived at Del Webb for 11 years where she continued to give back to the community by volunteering as a Georgia Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in foster care throughout the state. Margie continued to grow her friend network at Del Webb and with her CASA colleagues. Her neighbors, friends, and community were very special to her. She enjoyed many pontoon boat sunset cruises on Lake Oconee with her husband, happy hours on the patio, and four cross-country road trips that took Margie and her husband to numerous landmarks and places of interest across the U.S., including Yosemite National Park, the Alamo, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Sierra Nevada, Sequoia National Forest, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, the Ark Encounter, and many others.

Margie is preceded in death by her brother Keith “Buck” Cooley.

Margie is survived by her husband Robert Eugene Smith, Sr., daughter Janette Dawn Smith Stone, son Robert Eugene Smith, Jr, daughter-in-law Teresa Sexton Smith, and grandchildren Madeline Christine Stone Brewer, Benjamin “Ben” Adam Stone, Olivia Erin Smith, and Katherine “Katie” Pauline Smith.

Visitation will be on Monday, August 19, 2024 from 6pm to 8pm at Demaine Funeral Home, 5308 Backlick Rd, Springfield, VA 22151.

A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 12pm to 1pm at Demaine Funeral Home, 5308 Backlick Rd, Springfield, VA 22151. A burial service will follow at 2pm at National Memorial Park, 7482 Lee Hwy, Falls Church, VA 22042. A reception will be held following the burial service. More details for the reception will be provided.

Arrangements are by Demaine Funeral Home: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/funeral-homes/virginia/springfield/demaine-funeral-home/4855

Donations may be made to the American Cancer Society (https://donate.cancer.org), Georgia CASA (https://www.gacasa.org/donate), or to the charity of your choice. Margie’s family wishes to extend our sincere thanks to all who sent their prayers and well wishes since her cancer diagnosis in 2020, and to Home Instead, especially Ms. Vickie, for all of the care and support over the past 12+ months.