| Notes |
- Obit:
Smith, Elizabeth, daughter of Christ and Catherine (Hauck) Berry, was born in Franconia, Pa., Nov. 7, 1886; died at Ovid Convalescent Manor on June 15, 1979; aged 92 y. Her first husband was Harry H. Bergey.
In the spring of 1908, she and her sick husband, Harry, came from Pennsylvania to Colorado seeking health for him. They stayed with the J.M. Nunemaker family until the Sanitarium in La Junta was completed. Mr. Bergey was the first patient admitted on Oct.8, 1908. Although Elizabeth was not a nurse, she served as Nurse in Charge for her busband and other patients (up to 25 at times). After 5 years, Dr. W.W.Morse, a former missionary to China, and now the first medical director of the Sanitarium, urged Elizabeth to take training to become a licensed nurse. She enrolled at the Minnequa School of Nursing in Pueblo in 1911. During her third year of training, her husband died at the Sanitarium. After graduation she returned to the Sanitarium and became official Director of Nurses in the fall of 1914 to 1916.
In December of 1913, the J.J. Smith family from a farm in Roanoke, Ill., came to La Junta to find treatment for the wife and mother. Mrs.Smith died in March 1914, near the time of Elizabeth's husband's passing. Elizabeth remained at the Sanitarium until December 1916, then went to Illinois and married J.J.Smith, and became stepmother to his 4 young children.
J.J. and Elizabeth had one son, George, in 1917. In 1920 the family moved to St.Johns, Michigan, to farm. J.J. died in May 1924. Elizabeth stayed on the farm with the older boys doing the farmwork until they were ready to go on with their education at Goshen College. George was too young for farmwork, so she moved to town and went back to nursing at St.Johns Hospital. She retired at age 70, and died 1979.
Surviving are one (George), 3 stepsons (Willard, Tilman, and Milton), one stepdaughter (Mrs. Dorothy Shank), 17 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. She was a member of Bethel Mennonite Church, where funeral services were held on June 17, in charge of James Martin; interment in Washington Twp. Cemetery.
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1886 - 1979 (92 years)
