Barbara Louise Rexroth Smith

Barb grew up in Oskaloosa, lowa a city of nearly 1200 located southeast of Des Moines. She graduated from Oskaloosa High School in 1970. She attended William Penn College in Oskaloosa and graduated with a BA degree in Elementary Education within three years of enrollment. She taught school at Grant Elementary in Oskaloosa, and Washington and Starry Elementary in Marion, lowa.

Barb attended the University of lowa and received an MA degree in special education. She taught special education in Marion, lowa. While teaching, she again enrolled at the University of lowa to obtain her doctorate degree in Special Education (PhD). Barb successfully completed all the required coursework, passed her comprehensive examinations, and began work on her doctoral dissertation. Unfortunately, due to family and work related demands, she did not complete her PhD.

Barb gave birth to three children: Jamie, Cory, and Andrea. Most of their growing up years were in Marion, lowa, where they attended Marion High School, which is adjacent to the city of Cedar Rapids. All were fans of the University of low Hawkeyes sports teams.

Barb became a Special Education Consultant for the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, a subdivision of the State Department of Education. She worked with special education teachers around Cedar Rapids and lowa City.

She was assigned to the AEA office located in Coralville, lowa. As chance would have it, her work cubicle was located near Mark Smith, a Work Experience Coordinator with Grant Wood AEA. They married in 1991 in the Little Brown Church in Nashua, lowa and again at the chapel at Fort Myer, Virginia next to Arlington National Cemetery.

Her husband, Mark, was recalled to active duty with the US Army in September 1997. For the next eleven years they lived on the Great Lakes Naval Training base in Chicago, then were transferred to Fort Sam Houston, Texas. After Mark returned from a tour of duty in Iraq in 2004, they transferred to Fort Belvoir, Virginia just outside of Washington, DC until retirement in August 2008.

They retired to Olive Branch, Mississippi to be close to their daughter Jamie. (Mississippi winters are much nicer than lowa winters!)

Barb shares five children with her husband; Jamie in Olive Branch, Cory in Oklahoma, Andrea in Olive Branch, Nathan in Colorado and Ryan in Colorado. She has 10 grandchildren: Mae and Sam, children of Jamie and Steve Marshall; Reese, Alice, and Etta, children of Cory and Alicia Rubel; Morgan, Hagan and Kaylan, children of Nathan Smith; and Haley and Dylan, children of Ryan Smith. She is also survived by her brother, Ken Rexroth, in Indiana. She was preceded in death by her parents, Calvin and Frances (Gole) Rexroth. Her mother was born and raised in Clarkdale, Mississippi