Kay Locke Smith

Kay was born August 17th, 1942 in Panama City, Florida, and after a strong and courageous six-year battle against metastatic breast cancer, passed quietly the evening of May 28th, 2019 in Alexandria, Virginia, comforted by the loving and caring presence of family.
She was born to parents Elizabeth Hutchison and Jack Toby Locke. Kay's grandfather, Judge Ira A. Hutchison was one of early settlers and founding fathers of Bay County. She grew up in Panama City, graduated from Bay High School in 1960 and Gulf Coast Jr. College in 1962, and attended Florida State University where she met her future husband Bodsford, who grew up in Tallahassee, and whom she married in 1963. Although marriage and careers required relocating to several other states, she and family never forgot their northwest Florida heritage and made regular visits back home keeping in touch with family and friends.
While serving admirably as the wife of a career United States Air Force officer and mother of three incredible children, Kay persevered with her education to earn Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees. She was a superb educator, teaching K-12 at several schools for 30 years and applying her advanced education to her highly successful work with children of all ages with special needs.
From an early age she had a love of art needlework and particularly enjoyed creating unique beautiful professional-level knitted, crocheted, and machine embroidered items for friends and family; sharing her knowledge and capabilities with others; and participating in several sewing groups. During her struggle with cancer she embroidered hundreds of "cancer angels" of various cancer-related colors that were distributed and gave solace to others also suffering from cancer.
Kay is survived by brother, John K. Locke (Lila); husband, of 56 years Bodsford Smith; son, Douglas Smith (Stacy); son, Tyler Smith (Amy); daughter, Sarah Golightly (Scott); and eight grandchildren.
A Memorial Service will be held Saturday June 15th at Wilson Funeral Home with visitation at 10:00 and service at 10:30. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to your favorite charity in Kay's name.