Patricia McEvoy Smith, attorney, wife, mother, grandmother, active volunteer, 60-year member of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, and longtime former Chestnut Hill resident, died peacefully of ovarian cancer on July 18 at Foulkeways Life Plan Community in Gwynedd, surrounded by her family. She was 82.
Smith’s daughter, Dr. Christina Smith, said, “Mom was very loving and had a great sense of humor. She had an incredible work ethic and led by example. She was also an excellent mom and grandmom. She said, ‘You can do it all, just not all at the same time.’”
Smith was born on July 15, 1943, in New York City, to John Joseph McEvoy and Ellen Hoffman McEvoy. She grew up in Manhasset, New York, where she enjoyed water skiing and playing clarinet in her school’s marching band. When she was 16, she traveled throughout Europe with her grandmother.
Smith attended Newton College of the Sacred Heart in Massachusetts, majoring in history, and wrote her senior thesis on the “Brown v. Board of Education” Supreme Court case. That process blossomed into an early fascination with the legal system.
According to daughter Leslie Jannetta, “Mom said that a neighbor in Wyndmoor set up our dad (Rush) on a blind date with her during a snowy evening to watch a Cornell vs. Harvard ice hockey game.” Smith married Rush — who grew up in Wyndmoor and attended Penn Charter High School — before settling in the Chestnut Hill area shortly after Kimberly, the first of their three daughters, was born.
“We lived on the 100 block of W. Mermaid Lane when I was growing up,” Leslie said. “My parents lived on Crefeld Street in the 1970s. We all went to GFS [Germantown Friends School], then Springside. Mom was ahead of her time. She was going to law school when I was in the eighth grade, and dad supported her completely.”
Smith earned a master’s degree in education and became a reading specialist at Enfield Middle School in Erdenheim and Temple Lab School. She worked on her doctorate in education until switching gears in her early 40s and entering Rutgers Law School, where she was soon named an editor of the Law Review. After graduating, she was an associate for Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen and ultimately worked for the Social Security Administration for 30 years, serving as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Mid-Atlantic region.
Even with her busy career and family, Smith always managed to find time for activities at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. She chaired the church’s annual fundraiser, the Christmas Bazaar, and co-chaired the altar guild. Her family remembers her driving a parishioner from Chestnut Hill to Vermont and back after the woman’s husband died.
Susan Doran, Smith’s close friend of 55 years, told the Local, “Pat was the most interested person I have ever known. She was truly interested in everything, but when it was time to be home for her girls, she would be home. That attests to her organizational skills. It’s why she was such a good lawyer.”
Smith learned to golf at 50 and to garden at 80 and often told her children, “It’s never too late to learn new things.”
Since the late 1960s, the Philadelphia Cricket Club was like a second home to Smith. She played on a PCC tennis team and, with Rush, supported the USTA grass court junior tournament. They also enjoyed hosting tennis players at their home in Chestnut Hill. “She was a fantastic self-taught cook,” Leslie said. “Any time a friend came over, she would cook. She was always looking for healthy, nutritious meals.”
Smith and Rush moved to Erdenheim in 1996 until 18 months ago, when they moved into Foulkeways.
The couple traveled to Israel in 2019 on a trip led by former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and St. Martin’s rector Frank Griswold. She told friends that the trip was “faith affirming.” In March of this year, the couple was recognized by the church vestry with the Polly Randall Award for their years of exceptional service. As an active volunteer, Smith loved to bake for others, take meals to parishioners, and lend a helping hand through numerous ministries.
She loved nature and planted a large vegetable garden within the Foulkeways retirement community garden. She produced magic with both flowers and vegetables and gave most away to family and friends.
Smith is survived by her husband of nearly 60 years, Rush Blackfan Smith; three daughters Kimberly Smith Guerster (Jonathan M.), Leslie Hughes Smith Jannetta (Gregory) and Christina Topley Smith; as well as six grandchildren (Bela, Mason, and Brooke Guerster; Finley and Richard Paul; and Hannah Jannetta); and sisters Eloise and Denise McEvoy. Her brother, John J. McEvoy Jr., predeceased her.
A funeral service was held Friday, July 25, at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent in Smith’s name to the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin’s Lane, Phila., PA 19118.
Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
