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Post a reply || Back to Message Board Lila Smith Lightfoot - Class of 1944
Shorewood Hills - It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Lila
Smith Lightfoot after a long illness that she bore with strength and dignity.
Born April 7, 1926, in Newburgh, NY, to Dora (Bowerman) and James A. Smith, Lila
was the younger sister of James Jr. and Edith (Maxwell). Lila was educated as a
chemist at Cornell University and Brooklyn Polytechnic. She worked in science
before moving to Madison, where her career and interests took different paths.
She became a community leader, personally caring for elderly women, promoting
women's equality and liberty, pursuing graduate education in music, and
launching second careers in music and community service. Lila's marriage to
Edwin N. Lightfoot of 67 years was a true and loving partnership that took her
around the world and brought her life-long friends. Ed believes Lila's influence
was the key to his professional success as well as personal happiness. Lila ran
family businesses, camping trips, and a household full of friends, graduate
students, and a caboodle of pampered cats and dogs. Aside from her family Lila
had three great loves: music, her alma mater Cornell University, and her adopted
home of Madison. She was a proud member of the UW Choral Union, the Madison
Opera Chorus, and the Covenant Presbyterian Church Choir. She served on the
boards of the Friends of the Overture Organ, the Madison Symphony Orchestra
league, and WORT. She was an elder of Covenant Presbyterian Church, and held
several offices, including president, of the Pi Beta Phi Wisconsin Alpha Chapter
alumnae club. She was a benefactor of the Covenant Church bell choir and a
member of the Attic Angel Community, where she served personally for decades.
She supported women's causes, through NOW, the P.E.O. Sisterhood, and Planned
Parenthood, to name a few. Her family remembers her as a graceful, elegant, and
independent spirit; devoted mother; a strong, intelligent woman; a role model
and best friend. She was a delightful person with a dry sense of humor that grew
from a perceptive and compassionate approach to life. She was a great story
teller, and often her jokes would leave us laughing so hard we were breathless
and in tears before the punchline. It says a lot about Lila that she made each
of her children feel unquestionably like her special favorite. It is a great
comfort to us that those at Attic Angels who took care of her during her illness
knew her as the same person in her sickness that we knew in health--a remarkably
kind, open-hearted person and a risk taker, with a sense of humor and love for
life that immediately, or eventually, charmed all that knew her. Lila is proudly
and lovingly survived by her husband, Ed; her daughters, Dory (Enrique) and
Nancy (Nick); her sons, Ted (Sue), Robert (Karin), and David (Barry); four
nieces; her granddaughter, Kate; and many friends. A memorial service will be
held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 17, 2016 at COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH, 326 S. Segoe Road, Madison. In lieu of flowers please consider a
donation to a charity that reminds you of Lila, or one that was dear to her
including A Cure for Alzheimer's, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Planned
Parenthood, Madison Symphony Orchestra or Friends of the Overture Organ. Or be
inspired to mentor a young person in need of encouragement or engage with an
elderly person in need of companionship; that would be the best tribute to Lila. Replies to this post
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Lila Smith Lightfoot - My sister in law, Lila Smith Lightfoot died last year in 2016. She graduated with me June 1944. Lila brother James Smith (Class of 1935) predeceased Lila. Obituary and picture to follow.
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