mary-lou-smith90_14-2
Mary Lou Smith and family greet well-wishers during her 90th birthday celebration.

Mary Lou Smith celebrated her 90th birthday Saturday, greeted with a parade of family and friends who drove by her home honking horns and even stopping to sing for her while maintaining social distancing. Mary Lou and her husband John sat on a bench in the shade and greeted them with waves.

The Smiths first moved to Maricopa in 1952 and finally settled here in 1956, building the ranch house where they still live, surrounded by The Villages subdivision. Considered one of the founding farming families of modern Maricopa, and half of the namesake of Smith-Enke Road, the Smiths raised six children in Maricopa. Still a community volunteer, Mary Lou basked in her 90th birthday well wishes.

 

 

 

Raquel Hendrickson
Raquel, a.k.a. Rocky, is a sixth-generation Arizonan who spent her formative years in the Missouri Ozarks. After attending Temple University in Philadelphia, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and has been in the newspaper business since 1990. She has been a sports editor, general-assignment reporter, business editor, arts & entertainment editor, education reporter, government reporter and managing editor. After 16 years in the Verde Valley-Sedona, she moved to Maricopa in 2014. She loves the outdoors, the arts, great books and all kinds of animals.