Leonor M. Smith

Leonor Maria Smith was born in San Antonio, Texas on July 31, 1928. Leonor is preceded in her death by her parents, Leonor Magnon Grubbs and Phillip Grubbs, her brother Edward L. Grubbs, her twin grandsons Stephen and John Maher, and her husband, John Charles Smith.

Leonor attended Ursuline Academy and later graduated from Martin High School in Laredo, Texas in 1945. She received her bachelor's degree in English and Spanish from Texas Women’s University in 1949 and received a Professional Teaching Certificate for Secondary Education.

On August 20, 1949, she married John Charles Smith at St. Peter Catholic Church in Laredo. The couple lived in Bellville, where all her children were born, and for three years in Bay City, Texas. In 1961, the family moved to Houston and joined St. Cecilia Catholic Church, where Leonor remained a parishioner until her death. Leonor was a teacher of English and Spanish at St. Cecilia Catholic School from 1961 to 1978. Leonor was a substitute teacher at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart from 1979 to 1987. For the following two years, she volunteered full-time at Saint John Paul II Catholic School to teach Spanish and then retired from professional teaching in 1989.

Leonor was the grand-daughter of Leonor Villegas de Magnon, founder of La Cruz Blanca or the White Cross of Mexico and the author of two memoirs, The Rebel and La Rebelde, the English and Spanish language accounts of her work in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Leonor assisted her grandmother in editing and publishing the memoirs, and establishing her permanent collection at the University of Houston Special Collections Library.

In retirement, Leonor enjoyed her volunteer work as a Eucharistic Minister for the home-bound, an office worker at the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Cecilia, and as an interpreter and counselor for the Emergency Services of Memorial Area Ministries.

Leonor’s greatest joy was always the time she spent with her husband and her family, and her years of commitment to her beloved St. Cecilia community.

She is survived by her four children, Herbert Smith and wife Leanna, Valerie New and husband Charlie, Susan Maher and husband Stephen, and Mary Nugent and husband Mark, as well as her ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

The Funeral Vigil for Leonor will be held on Wednesday at 5:00 PM at Memorial Oaks Funeral Home at 13001 Katy Freeway. The Funeral Mass for Leonor will be held at St. Cecilia Catholic Church, located at 11720 Joan of Arc, on Thursday, November 17 at 10:00 am., followed by the Rite of Christian Burial at Memorial Oaks Cemetery. A reception will follow at St. Cecilia Community Center.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Cecilia Catholic Church.