Smith, Joan Wright
1928 - 2016
Poet, lifelong liberal, and global citizen, much loved by friends and family on five continents
Joan Wright Smith died peacefully in her son’s arms on March 7, 2016 in Newton, Massachusetts where she had recently moved from Washington DC. An exceptional woman of great spirit, kindness, and intelligence – she packed a lot into her 87 years, including 40 years of residence in Tunisia, Italy, France, Sri Lanka and travels in some 55 countries.
Born September 23, 1928 in Philadelphia, Mrs. Smith grew up in Princeton, NJ. According to the Ladies Home Journal (who published her work when she was 18) Joan “wrote poetry when she could barely print.” She studied at Miss Fine’s School, Garrison Forest School and Smith College (Class of 1950), spending her junior year in Paris where her mother was working for the Marshall Plan, acquiring a lifelong a love for all things French.
In 1953, she married newspaper man William Holmes Rafter of San Francisco, with whom she had two children (Patrick & Story Rafter). The couple divorced in the early 1960s where after, Joan and her children moved to Washington, DC where she worked in a range of public relations jobs, including Public Information Officer for the newly-created National Endowment for the Humanities.
A lifelong liberal: she campaigned for Adlai and Kennedy and wrote speeches for George McGovern.
In 1967, she married Kellogg Smith, and welcomed his daughter Seely. In 1968, the Smiths and their three children moved to Tunisia, where Kellogg was Peace Corps Country Director. Joan worked as translator and liaison to the Tunisian government for the hospital ship HOPE.
In 1970, Joan and family moved to Rome, Italy where she worked as an editor and translator on independent projects, and for the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization. In 1973, the Smiths opened Bella Copia, a shop in Rome’s historic center, featuring beautiful ceramics, woodcarvings and weaving from all over Italy. They remained well-known members of the ex-pat community of Roma Vecchia until 1995.
While living in Rome, they continued their worldly travels, laying down roots in Sri Lanka, restoring Lime House in Unawatuna Beach, and at Le Petit Moulin, an ancient farmhouse surrounded by sunflower fields, in Miradoux in southwest France. They returned to live full time in Washington DC in 2004, Kellogg passed away in 2007.
In 2015, Mrs. Smith moved north, spending the last year of her life near her family, living at The Falls at Cordingly Dam in Newton Lower Falls, MA.
Commenting on her extraordinary life, Joan once wrote: “As Bette Davis put it, old age ain’t for sissies, but I suppose the piper must be paid for all those wonderful years we had.”
Her survivors include daughters Seely Smith Harris of Orlando, Florida and Story Rafter of Sausalito, California, her son Patrick Wright Rafter of Wellesley, Massachusetts, and five loving grandchildren. The family will hold private services at a later date. Donations in her memory may be made to Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres.