Annette R. Smith

Annette Ruth Smith, the daughter of Idella Ruth Smothers and the late Daniel Smothers Jr. was born on December 18, 1946 in Baltimore, Maryland. She departed this life on Wednesday, September 1, 2021. The oldest of three girls, Annette grew up in Baltimore and accepted the lord into her life at an early age. She was reared in a Christian home and attended Whitestone Baptist church in her youth, under the tutelage of her grandfather, the late Reverend William Howard Thompson.

She graduated from Eastern High School in 1964 and later attended Baltimore City Community College majoring in law. Forever the adventurer, she moved to Detroit, Michigan where she met and married the late Johnny Lee Smith at the tender age of 19.  After several years, they divorced but remained friends throughout life.

Upon moving back to Baltimore, Annette was employed at the Social Security Administration where she was a dedicated employee for 16 years until she retired in 1989. After retiring from the Social Security Administration, she moved to Chicago, Illinois to be closer to her sister Debbie who was also her best friend. While in Chicago, she joined the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church under the guidance of the late Reverend Clay Evans where she sang and travelled across the country with the choir for over 10 years. Later in her retirement, she worked for the Target Corporation for 15 years.

There was three things Annette loved most in life: The Lord, her family and traveling. Because of her love of family and wanting to live closer to her children, she often moved from the North to the South. She loved people and met friends everywhere she went. She always found a church home no matter what state she moved to.  She loved to bake and would often bake her famous sweet potato pies and coconut-pineapple cakes for family, friends, and coworkers. Annette was a loving, caring, and selfless woman who would do anything to help family, friends and even strangers. 

She leaves to cherish her memory, her mother, Idella Ruth Scott; her son, Paul Bernard Brooks and daughter-in-law, Sylvia Bailey-Brooks; two daughters, Michelle Renee Smith, and Stephanie Nicole Smith; two loving sisters, Debra Johnson of Virginia, and Lisa McCall of Baltimore; one brother-in-law, James W. Johnson Jr. of Virginia, eight grandchildren, two grandsons-in-law, eleven great-grandchildren, two nephews and several aunts, uncles, and cousins.

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