Mary Catherine (Harpster) Smith
Mary Catherine (Harpster) Smith, 90, passed away on July 19, 2021, from natural causes at Maybrook Hills Rehabilitation Center, Altoona, Pa., with family at her side.
Born September 26,1930, at the “Bailey-Glenn-Harpster Stone House” in Pennsylvania Furnace, she resided in Port Matilda, Osceola Mills, and West Decatur before living the majority of her final years at Decatur Village in Philipsburg.
She has joyfully reunited with her beloved husband, Walter Ellsworth Smith; daughter, Dora Rose Smith; her parents, David and Sara (Saucerman) Harpster; brothers: Glenn, Leroy, Marion, and Ernest Harpster as well as meeting her great-grandson, Abdulrahman Al-Jobouri for the first time.
Her passing leaves three sons: Walter George Smith married to Belinda (Scott), Timothy Joel Smith and Thomas Eugene Smith; and sisters, Marjorie Walker and Eva Schanbacher.
She has three granddaughters and two grandsons, three great-grandsons and five great-granddaughters, two great-great grandchildren (one boy and one girl), numerous nieces and nephews, and a prayer list of loving friends and extended family.
A graduate of Worth Township HS, she also attended the Eastern Bible Institute at University of Valley Forge. She nurtured and cared for anyone around her, her entire life. Through diligent home study she became a Certified Nurse’s Aide, providing focused loving care for many over 30 years.
Mary C. (as she loved to be called) was funny and very kind. She was known for picking berries, making the best white bread and jelly, but always overcooking pork chops. A local “hobo” came often for her generous food and cold milk.
She was proud of her large garden, and once shot a 12-gauge shotgun from the second-floor bathroom at 50-yards killing a groundhog eating her cabbage, saying, “The groundhog-cabbage stew was never better.”
A master of embroidery, cross stitch, chicken scratch, and quilt fabrication (a Glenn/Harpster family tradition); she won many first-place blue ribbons at the Clearfield County Fair.
She loved being with people and enjoyed serving others. She was a member of the Red Hat Society and held many officer positions with the Christians Women’s Club of Phillipsburg. She also loved and encouraged acting and liked to play her favorite character Minnie Pearl.
She cared for the environment and was one of the first to file a case with the new EPA against a local coal cleaning plant for giving her “black sheets, black cats, and black kids” from the coal dust.
Her commitment to the Decatur Village Community was long-term and recognized with two “Volunteer of the Year” Lifetime Awards, from President George Bush as well as President Barack Obama.
Mary Catherine was a faithful and loving servant of the Lord. Her spiritual life centered on the study and practice of the Word of God. She attended the Gospel Tabernacle Assembly of God, serving as the first woman Deacon, a Sunday School teacher and Superintendent, Mission Secretary, Treasurer, Women’s’ Ministry President, V.B.S. Teacher and other functions for the needs of the church.
Her good work from her life lives on and loves on, and she would want you to celebrate her love of God at a service in her memory on Sunday, September 26th (which would have been her 91st birthday), starting approximately 11:30am at the Philipsburg Gospel Tabernacle Assembly of God, 236 Scott Lane, Philipsburg, PA 16866.
A catered BBQ will be provided for all after the Sunday service. Please come!
The private family interment will be held the following day on Monday, September 27th at Black Oak Church Cemetery, 611 Flat Rock Road, Port Matilda, PA 16807.
Please honor her memory and show your support for her wishes, by (in lieu of flowers) sending a donation to: Gospel Tabernacle-Missions Fund, 236 Scott Lane, Philipsburg, PA 16866.
Online condolences may be submitted to: www.beezerheathfh.com
