Shirley Craft "Mimi" Smathers - Submitted for the USGenWeb by Richard P. Sevier 12/31/09

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Shirley Craft "Mimi" Smathers - Madison Parish, Louisiana 

From Fayetteville(NC)Observer, December 31, 2009

TAMPA, Fla. - Mrs. Shirley Craft "Mimi" Smathers, 74, formerly of Oak Grove, La., born 
on Dec 16, 1935, passed away Friday, Dec. 25, 2009, after battling cancer since August. 

She was the daughter of Robert Clyde and Bessie Hankins Craft. She is survived by her husband, 
Sam; two sons, Michael and David Andrews of Tampa; two stepdaughters, Diedre McManus of Fayetteville, 
N.C., and Michael-Ann Ashman of Durham, N.C.; four grand-daughters, Ashley Cummins of Sumter, S.C., 
Brittany McManus of Fayetteville, and Amber and Ruby Ashman of Durham. She has three nieces and two 
nephews living in Louisiana, as well as many friends and other relatives located throughout the states. 

Shirley was a social worker, having graduated from Louisiana Tech and receiving a master's of social 
work from Tulane University in New Orleans. She started her career in Louisiana Child Protection 
Services, Monroe. She then worked in the TALLULAH area office as an adoption worker. She was known for 
her kindness and caring nature, always looking after the best interest of children and ensuring they 
had a family. 

During the holidays, her generosity extended to neighbors and friends who had no families. After briefly 
residing in Orlando with her first husband, Guy Andrews, they soon moved to Tampa, where she resumed social 
work, managing adoptions for the Children's Home Inc. In 1982, she married her second husband, Sam, and 
left social work to live in the Sudan as his new bride. After four years, they returned to Tampa, where 
they purchased rental properties and owned and operated the Jubilee Restaurant & Lounge. In 1991, they 
returned to Africa and worked in Nigeria for six years, then returned to Tampa to continue the rental 
property business. 

Shirley will be cremated and her ashes will be placed in her family's cemetery in Kilbourne, La., as well 
as Sam's family cemetery in Canton, N.C. Shirley was loved and admired by all who knew her. The family 
will receive friends on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Miguel Fuentes Chapel, 7701 W. 
Hillsborough Ave., Tampa. A graveside memorial is planned for Kilbourne, on Sunday, Feb 14, 2010. In lieu 
of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to LifePath Hospice, 12973 N. Telcom Parkway, Suite 100, 
Temple Terrace,FL 33537, or the Children's Home Inc., 10909 Memorial Highway, Tampa, FL 33615. Services 
entrusted to Brewer & Sons Funeral Home of Tampa.