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Obituary

A Renaissance woman departs

When Margaret Smith's husband died, the single mother soldiered on and became a businesswoman thrice over.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published May 12, 2006

PARKLAND ESTATES - When Margaret Smith's daughter pulled into the parking lot of Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church last week, she was taken aback by the number of cars she saw.

Pat Colvard had come to attend a memorial service for her mother. But the parking lot was full. She figured there was something going on across the street at Plant High School.

As it turned out, all those cars belonged to people who had come to remember Mrs. Smith, a pioneering Tampa businesswoman who died of natural causes on April 30. She was 92.

"I couldn't believe how many people were there," Colvard said.

Some people who came to pay their respects knew Mrs. Smith as one of the first female bank officers in Tampa. Some knew her as the owner and operator of a popular gift shop. Others knew her from the interior decorating business she ran until she was in her 80s.

Pat Colvard knew her simply as the closest friend she had ever had.

"She was only 20 when she had me, and then my father died when I was 10, so we really did grow up together," Colvard said. "She was my best friend, definitely."

Mrs. Smith was born in rural Ohio. She studied business at Denison University for a few years but left to marry a University of Toledo student named Allison Smith in 1934. Pat, their only child, was born soon after.

Allison Smith went off to fight in World War II and never returned. He died in Normandy shortly after D-Day, at age 32.

Mrs. Smith was devastated and never fully recovered, her daughter said. But she was practical and recognized that she had to provide for her child. She returned to Denison and worked as the university president's assistant while she finished her studies.

In 1945, she came to Tampa, where her husband's parents were living, and settled into a home on Morrison Avenue.

She put her business degree to use, first working for ALCOA and then as an office manager for Tampa doctors Hershel Cole and Albert Wilson. In the early 1950s, she co-founded Tampa Federal Savings and Loan.

"She became an officer of the bank, and I think she was the first woman bank officer in Tampa," her daughter said. "She was definitely one of the first."

By the early 1960s, she had grown restless with her work with the savings and loan. She had always wanted to run her own business, so she bought Cecyl's Gift Shop, a South Tampa institution that specialized in fine china, crystal and other high-end gifts.

"She was always traveling," her daughter said. "She went to Asia, she went to Europe, to buy china for the shop."

She sold Cecyl's in 1977 and started a new business called Interior Temptations.

She was living in Redington Beach at that time and much of her business involved decorating condos along the beach. But as the business grew, she spent more and more time in Tampa and moved back across the bay.

She continued to operate her interior decorating company until the mid 1990s. She spent her last years in the Parkland condo building on Swann Avenue and traveling to Europe and South America with her daughter and grandsons.

"She was a Renaissance woman, she really was," Pat Colvard said. "She was never afraid of hard work."

The memorial service became a reunion for all of Mrs. Smith's employees from Cecyl's. Many of Colvard's classmates from Plant High School also turned out to pay their respects. They considered Mrs. Smith like a big sister.

"After the service we had a party," Colvard said. "That's what she would have wanted."

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Smith is survived by two grandsons and a great-granddaughter.

[Last modified May 11, 2006, 13:58:51]