Bonnie
Lou Smart
September 14, 1936 - January 22, 2022Bonnie Lou Richardson
Smart, 85, of Greenville, wife of the late James H. “Jim” Smart, passed
away Saturday, January 22, 2022, at Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Born in Randolph, TX, she was a daughter of the late William Martin
Leslie and Thelma Lee Barnett Richardson. She was retired from the
Greenville County School System as an administrative assistant and was a
member of First Baptist Church of Greenville.
Bonnie was known as a warm, caring, outgoing, and generous person who
loved to spend time in conversation with fellow church members,
Starsdale Circle and Rolling Green Village neighbors, and her local
family members and many friends. She felt especially close to her
extended Texas family in the Dallas area, and she also kept in touch
with good friends from her days at Carrollton High School. At First
Baptist, for a period of ten years, Bonnie co-taught a Sunday School
class for young adults with her husband Jim. She enjoyed keeping up with
the class members in later years, seeing many of them marry and have
children, and eventually grandchildren, of their own.
Education was one of Bonnie’s highest values. She completed her BA
degree at Judson College in Marion, Alabama; trained as an elementary
school teacher; worked for several area schools, including the Shriner’s
Hospital School and Arrington Elementary; and was actively involved in
the lives of her late husband’s students at Furman University. She
wholeheartedly supported and celebrated her granddaughter’s educational
achievements through graduate school. In her later years she became a
supporter of Furman’s Cothran Center, whose mission is to help students
and others in the community connect their education to a meaningful
sense of their life’s purpose.
She is survived by her daughter: Susan D’Amato; son: Rusty Smart (C. F.
Hawkins); granddaughter: Alexis D’Amato; and brother: Robert Richardson
(Ann).
There will be a private family memorial service at a later date.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Triune Mercy Center, 222
Rutherford St. Greenville, SC 29609, Furman University Cothran Center
for Vocational Reflection, 3300 Poinsett Hwy. Greenville, SC 29613, or
the charity of one’s choice.
To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Bonnie Lou Smart
please visit our Sympathy Store.
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