Mrs.
Earnestine F.W. Smith
September
22, 1925 – September 27, 2010
It
is with great sadness that the family of Mrs.
Earnestine F.W. Smith announces her passing
on the morning of September 27, 2010 in Paynesville
Liberia.
Earnestine
Floretta Wilson Smith was born September 22,
1925 in Ferriday, Louisiana to Mr. and Mrs.
Clarence Wilson. At the age of eleven Earnestine
professed Christ and became actively involved
in Ferriday’s First Baptist Church.
In
1943, she graduated from the eleventh grade
as the class Valedictorian from Ferriday’s
Sevier Rosenwald School. Later in 1943 Earnestine
enrolled at Tennessee A& I (Tennessee State
University). In 1959 Mrs. Smith obtained a teaching
position at the College of West Africa. A year
later she and Mr. Robert D. Carey initiated
evening typing courses, leading to business
electives at CWA which Mrs. Smith taught. In
addition, she worked to initiate the school’s
annual year book. At CWA Earnestine served as
an instructor, the registrar and the principal.
Throughout her tenure at CWA she was the choir
director many, many times over the years.
Earnestine
completed training for her B.S. from September
1969 through August 1970, at Tennessee State
University. Her Master’s project was to
establish the Junior College Program in Business,
at the College of West Africa, which would be
an Associate’s degree granting program
business. In 1980 as President of the College
of West Africa and the founder of the Junior
College Program in Business, Mrs. Smith officiated
as CWA conferred Associates degrees on its first
Junior College Program in Business graduates.
CWA’s Junior College Program in Business
was fully accredited nationally and internationally.
Earnestine
F.W. Smith was invested Dame Grand Commander
of the Star of Africa, and admitted into the
Humane Order of African Redemption on July 22,
2009.
At
the time of her demise, she was planning to
take a vacation with her daughter. On the morning
of September 27, 2010, five days following her
eighty-fifth birthday Earnestine F. W. Smith
departed this life.
She
leaves to mourn; her daughter, Dr. Gwendolyn
M. S. Rees; granddaughter, Diandrea Earnesta
Rees, many other family members; her dear friends,
Mrs. Ida Burphy Ajavon, Mrs. Cecelia Perkins-Cooper,
The Honorable Henry Reed Cooper, Mrs. Mildred
Dean, Ms. Deloris Frazier, Mr. Tamba Mayah,
Mrs. Maigret Nimeny, Mrs. Thelma Pannell, Mrs.
Teidi Stewart, Mrs. Carolyn Hicks Tah, Mrs.
Ayo Wangara, and a host of other friends and
associates.
Mrs.
Earnestine F. W. Smith's funeral service
will be held on Saturday, October 16th at 10:00a.m
at the First United Methodist Church on Ashmun
Street, Monrovia, Liberia. The burial
will follow at Kaiser Memorial Lawn Cemetery
in Brewerville. Wake keeping arrangements
are being finalized.
Submitted
by: Gwendolyn M. S. Rees, October 4, 2010
Posted
by the Class of ’74 ( CWA )
