Berube & Sons Funeral Home, Inc.

Elizabeth Fuller Smith, 93, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, passed away Monday, June 21, 2010, at Portsmouth Memorial Hospital.

            Betty, born in Medford, Massachusetts on March 12, 1917, was the eldest child of the late Phillip E. and Grace Potter Fuller. Raised in Marblehead, from a young age she trained in modern dance. As Class Historian she graduated from Marblehead High School in 1935, attending Beaver College in Pennsylvania before receiving a medical technology degree from the Northwest Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She worked for Salem Hospital as a laboratory technician, while keeping a dance studio on the side, then relocated to Greenfield, Massachusetts to start and raise a family. Active in Girl Scouts as a troop leader, she was also a dedicated gardener, an amateur naturalist, and a lifelong Catholic. Late in life she rekindled her passion for the sea, returning to her beloved New England coast, where she painted landscapes and dealt antiques.

            Her first husband, Woodrow Wilson White, died in action in Italy in 1944. A second marriage to R. Martin Smith ended in divorce.

            Betty leaves four children, who will miss her keenly: Grace Hagstrom and her husband, Alan, of Rockport; Elizabeth "Vicki" Uzzle of Eliot, Maine; Gregory Smith and his partner, Nancy Knowlton, of Boynton Beach, Florida; and Bradford Smith and his wife, Rebecca Rice, of Hadley. She is also survived by a cherished brother, Dayner Fuller, and his wife, Doris, of Peabody; a sister, Grayce Perry, of Hyannis; a sister-in-law, Louise Fuller, of Concord, New Hampshire; six grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and also seven nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her brother, Phillip Fuller.

            A Funeral Mass will be held at Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Marblehead at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 24, with burial to follow at Waterside Cemetery, Marblehead. There will be no calling hours. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Betty's memory to United Spinal Association, 75-20  Astoria Blvd, Jackson Heights, NY 11370 (www.unitedspinal.org).