In Remembrance

Check your settings when you are happy with your print preview press the print icon below.

Show Obituaries Show Guestbook Show Photos QR Code Print

Annabelle Joyce Smith

May 9, 1926 - February 5, 2015

Private services will be held

Obituary Viewed 5066 times

Annabelle Joyce (Nelson) Smith, 88, died February 5, 2015, at Solvay House in Duluth following
pancreatic cancer.

 

Annabelle was born in 1926 in Virginia MN to Oscar and Hilma (Ross) Nelson. She graduated
from Roosevelt High School in Virginia MN in 1943. She married Bernard C. Smith on October
12, 1944. She took pride in raising her large family of 5 children.

 

Annabelle found her true passion in the arts. She was a talented organist, fashion artist, oil
painter, and needleworker. In the late 1960s, Annabelle went to work in the Advertising
Department of the Mesabi Daily News in Virginia MN where she created the ads. She also
worked as a fashion artist for Herberger’s in Virginia. After moving to Duluth MN in 1972,
Annabelle began work as a fashion artist for Oreck’s and Glass Block creating fashion drawings
for merchandise advertising.

 

A woman with an insatiable curiosity for life, Annabelle encouraged others to find their true
passions and to never stop learning.

 

She was preceded in death by her husband, Bernard C. Smith; her parents, Oscar and Hilma
(Ross) Nelson; sister, Nancy Henderson; Brother, Fred Nelson.

 

Annabelle will be greatly missed by her children Clara (Cheryl) Smith, Diana (Phil) Barnett,
Memory (Grant) Forsyth, Karen Bane, Sandi (Steve) Knutie; her grandchildren Shelly (Chuck)
Naglevitch, Michael (Jamie) Smith, Steve Smith, Shaun Barnett, Jim (Megan) Forsyth, Charlie
(Rachel) Forsyth, Julie (John) Cummings, Janelle (Kate) Bane, Tom Bane, Dr. Sarah Knutie,
Erin (Ken) Francois; great-grandchildren Noah Cummings, Mason Forsyth, Dominic and Miles
Forsyth, and Ryan Frailey; sister Dorothy Landreville.

 

Many thanks to Essentia Hospice Homecare and Solvay Hospice House, the family asks that memorial gifts be made to Solvay.

 

Private services will be held. Services by Affordable Cremation & Burial, 218-491-7011, affordableduluth.com