Catherine Oliver (Jenrette) Smith

Catherine Jenrette Smith of the Jacks Creek community passed away on Thursday, April 4th, 2024. Catherine grew up in North Wilkesboro, NC, and Roanoke and Galax, VA.  She was the daughter of Tom and Virginia Jenrette. Catherine attended Galax High School, graduating in 1957, and was co-captain of the school’s women’s basketball team her senior year there.  She then attended the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina, a school which later became known as UNC-Greensboro.  Catherine graduated from WC in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education. During her time at WC, she sang in the college choir, and in all the years since then singing was a vital part of Catherine’s life.  She formed a lifelong friendship with Lynn Rankin at WC, and after graduating the two physical education teachers roomed together in Charlotte with another friend who would last a lifetime, Dr. Marilyn Jody.  Catherine owed her friend Jody an important debt – it was Jody who introduced her to Kearney Smith, who would become Catherine’s husband and partner in all of life’s adventures for 59 years until his death in November of 2023. Catherine, Lynn, and Jody formed a vocal trio, The Uptowners, and made a record of their renditions of popular folk songs of the 1960s.  Catherine’s teaching career included posts in Charlotte and later in Siler City, NC; and she spent eleven years teaching at the Bakersville Child development center.  Some of her earliest teaching experiences occurred as part of her work as a counselor at Camp Mondamin and Camp Green Cove in Tuxedo, NC. Catherine was a camp counselor and canoeing instructor at Mondamin & Green Cove in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Catherine and Kearney raised their children Elizabeth and Stephen at their Green Mountain home after moving there in 1976. She and Kearney became licensed HAM radio operators and for several years were active in the local HAM community, volunteering at races and other events in the area. Catherine shared with Kearney a love of travel, taking camping trips throughout the United States, and visiting many National Parks and Monuments and other public lands.  She also traveled to Europe several times with Kearney after retirement. During the years her grandchildren were growing up here in Yancey County, Catherine was a faithful attendee and cheerleader for them at soccer games, plays, concerts, and piano recitals.

Catherine was a lifelong musician, singing in church and community choirs for many years, and was a self-taught instrumentalist, playing the recorder, the baritone ukulele, and the Appalachian dulcimer. She and Kearney taught their children to sing a variety of vocal music, ranging from shape-note hymns and Christmas carols to Renaissance vocal motets. And in their younger years, Elizabeth and Stephen learned to sing harmony by listening to the Uptowners record album their mother made with her friends years before.

Catherine was preceded in death by her beloved husband Kearney, as well as by her parents, Tom, and Virginia Jenrette.  Cherishing her memory are her brother, Tom Jenrette; her daughter Elizabeth and her husband Rich; her son Stephen and his wife Brenda; two grandchildren, Isaac, and Rachel; two step-grandchildren – Dane (and wife Paige) and Jena (and husband Garren); and many cousins, nephews, nieces, and other loved ones and friends.

 A Celebration of Life service for Catherine will be held on Saturday, July 20, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. at First Baptist Church in Burnsville, NC. The family would like to express their appreciation to the staff at Pruitt Home Health for their skilled and supportive help in assisting Catherine to be in her own home during the last months of her life, and to all our loved ones and our church families for their support and prayers during this time. God bless you all. 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Yancey County Humane Society.

Holcombe Brothers Funeral Home is respectfully serving the Smith family.

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