After a brief illness and a long life, Lois Sanderson Smyth died peacefully on April 18 at VITAS Hospice at St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Conn., just shy of her 95th birthday.

Born on June 13, 1917, Lois drove her car until at 88 she hit the gas instead of the brake and landed sideways against a tree, suspended in the woods across from her lifelong home at 472 East Mountain Road in Waterbury, Conn. The event made the front page of the Waterbury Republican but she escaped relatively unscathed. She raised her two sons, David and Peter, and her daughter Susan in this home. She lived there with her daughter, grandsons and son Peter after the death in 1988 of her beloved husband, David Vincent Smyth.

She graduated from Hopeville Grammar School, Wilby High School, and met her husband when she worked in the blueprint department at Waterbury Tool Company.

The couple traveled the world, seeing such exotic places as India, Europe, the British Isles, and South America as well as many wonderful places in the United States and Mexico. They owned and loved a home in Oak Bluffs. Lois spent time on the Island with friends and family for 40 years.

Her name is still on the high score board at Parillo’s bowling alley for a ladies league game. She also enjoyed bridge until the ladies in her club had a hard time telling the clubs from the spades.

Mrs. Smyth was girl scout leader of the South Congregational Church brownie and scout troops for 13 years and led many raucous and educational trips and campouts, enriching the lives of her daughter and other girls from Hopeville School. She was also president of the Hopeville PTA.

Lois was an active parishioner at Christ Episcopal Church, Waterbury for many years, serving as a Sunday School teacher. She was secretary of the vestry and a member of Episcopal Churchwomen.

Besides son Peter Bronson Smyth, daughter Susan Brooksby Smyth and Susan’s partner, W. Scott Temple, she leaves three grandsons, Matthew David Luce, Nathan William Luce and Daniel Peter Smyth-Temple, her daughter inlaw, Barbara Peart Smyth, and a sister, Olive Jane Heebner. She is pre-deceased by her son, David Sanderson Smyth, her brother Harry Sanderson and her husband David.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to Christ Church, 2050 E. Main street, Waterbury, CT 06705.