Arline Mae Smith

NEW YORK- Arline M. Smith, 79, of New York, NY, died at 11:30 a.m., Monday, December 30, 2019 at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, NY. 

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, January 11 at Toulon Baptist Church in Toulon, IL. Pastor Albert Harmon will officiate. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the services at the church. Burial will be in Elmira Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to the family for a memorial to be established. Rux Funeral Home in Kewanee is in charge of arrangements. 

On May 25th of 1940 Arline Mae Essenberg was born in Chicago to George and Helen Essenberg, the first of their four children. Later followed George, Helen, and Glenn. She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the suburb of Roseland.  She was a high school girl in that classic age of the 1950s. A fashionista from the earliest age, she wore dresses, cinched-in at the waist, pleated, and of course polyester, plaid or herringbone tweed skirts, solid colored blouses accompanied by cardigan sweaters in cool weather, saddle shoes and bobby-socks.  This is how she dressed while attending Christian Fenger High School. Too, she wore her ROTC uniform to the T.

Her next adventure was attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Barely on campus her freshman year, she was nearly ran over that fall by some guy flying by on his bike. While not intending to get her M.R.S. degree so quickly, they fell in love.  After a world-wind engagement she married Stuart Loren Smith on May 14, 1960 a couple weeks before turning 20.  Stuart grew up on a farm outside of Bradford, IL, where his genealogical roots run deep.  Marquee events continued as Arline soon found herself in the motherly way.  She gave birth to Caroline Mae.  Sadly, Caroline was born too tiny and became Arline's only child that preceded her in death.  Caroline was laid to rest in Elmira Cemetery. That was 1961.  In 1962 Damaris Mae screamed her way into the world.  In 1963, Douglas Stuart followed.  In 1964, Darese Mae.  Arline's brother George was busy running big sister to different hospitals in south Chicago those years as Stuart's poor eyesight prevented his ability to get a driver's license. 

Then finally a respite from labor pains.  In the heat of the summer of 1967 the three older children spent several weeks with Uncle Walt and Aunt Shirley (Stuart's older sister) on their hog farm in New Berlin, IL just west of Springfield. That was to give Arline time to bring David James into her world.  That three-year spacing seemed a bit more practical as in 1970 Arline was blessed with her youngest daughter Deanne Helen.

While God blessed the rapid expansion of Stuart's tree removal business, Arline was probably busier as kept her five children involved in all sorts of activities from sports, to crafts, to music lessons, and of course schooling. Music was preeminent.  As was church.  we never missed attending Bethany Reformed Church under Dr. Harry James Hager:  Sunday School, and Church, the Sunday night service, nor the Wednesday service.  For a time, Arline led the Children's choir where all her children sang.  All the children of age attended Faith Bible Camp which was started by Stuart's parents near Modena, IL.  As evidenced by her actions, it was extremely important to raise her children in Christian environments.

Stuart's business forced the family to relocate to Merrill, WI in 1974.  Derek Daniel Paul joined the family in 1977. A few years later Arline sought and gained her Registered Nurses degree from Milton college and worked for a few years in various hospital psych wards in the 1980s.

As time rolls on, all her children grew, well equipped to be independent and successful in this life while grounded in the Christian faith in which they were reared.  This was likely her greatest accomplishment eternally speaking.

Stuart sold his businesses around the turn of the century.  And this allowed both Stuart and Arline to return to their roots.  Stuart got back into farming with his son David with a wheat farm outside of Great Falls, MT. 

After her husband died completely unexpectedly in 2009, Arline moved to the biggest of cities a few years later to the Upper Manhattan area of New York City.  With Riverside Park outside her apartment window, the famed Broadway just one block east, a subway system that can take you anywhere fast, and a 24-hour city, to her she was as close as possible to heaven on earth. She was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church in NYC in 2016.  She spent the last seven years of her life there passing away just one day before watching "the ball drop" into a new decade at age 79.

She was preceded in death by her husband Stuart, her daughter Caroline, her parents George and Helen, and her little brother Glenn.

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