Nancy Pat Lewis-Smith

Nancy Pat Hamilton Lewis-Smith, 90, of 104 Virginia Street, Beckley, died Monday, November 23, 2009.

Born January 21, 1919, in Oak Hill, West Virginia, she was the daughter of the late Dr. Edward St. Clair and Kate Boone Hamilton.

Nancy Pat was an involved owner and president of the many corporations that comprised Lewis Automotive Group, a Beckley landmark since 1937.

She was concerned with education, culture, business, politics and church. She served as Past President of the Beckley Junior Women’s Club, the Beckley Woman’s Club, the PTO at Institute Elementary School, and organized the first intermediate Girl Scout Troop in the local area. She also served on the Organization Committee of the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Day School where she later taught kindergarten. She also taught adult basic education. She helped organize such diverse groups as Highland Garden Club, the Women’s Resource Center and the Beckley Community Concert Association. She served as a member of the State Democratic Committee from 1964 to 1990 and as a member of the Beckley Housing Authority and Beckley Renaissance. She held memberships in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Women’s Club, Highland Garden Club, the Black Knight Country Club, Book Club, and Historical Society.

She remained an active member of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church where she had previously been President of the Women of the Church Organization.

Nancy Pat graduated from Oak Hill High School, and Ward Belmont College, and continued her education at Beckley College (now Mountain State University) and Morris Harvey College (now University of Charleston).

She married Charles Scott Lewis, Jr. who predeceased her on December 5, 1987. From that marriage she has three daughters, Nancy Hamilton Haley, Langhorne Abrams and husband A. David Abrams, Jr., Mary Charles Sutphin and husband Kem Sutphin. She also has six granddaughters, Kate Haley Hatfield and husband Eric Hatfield, Ann Haley Donegan, and husband Thomas Donegan, Rachel Abrams Hopkins and husband “Chad” Hopkins, Sarah Abrams, Mary Kemple Henderson and husband Pretlow Henderson, and Rebecca Sutphin. In addition to her granddaughters, she is also survived by eight great grandchildren, Ansley, Evan, Braden, Jared, John Hamilton, Ella St. Clair, Will, and Cross.

On July 14, 1990, she married former Governor Hulett Carlson Smith, who survives her, and added to the family circle the children of former Governor Smith, Carolyn Smith Sheets and her husband, George, Mark Weston Smith, now deceased, Paul Luther Smith and his wife, Patti, Suzaine Wilcott and Christy Smith Merritt.

She was inducted into the Mountain State University Alumni Hall of Fame in 2007. This award had special meaning to her since this is where she met Charles Scott Lewis, Jr. in 1939.

In addition to her many other honors, Nancy Pat was the first women locally honored as Paul Harris Fellow by the Beckley Rotary Club, an organization in which she was an active member until her declining health intervened.

In 1994, she and Governor Smith received the YMCA spirit of Beckley Award.

Services will be Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Beckley, with the Reverend Eric Miller officiating. Entombment will be at Sunset Memorial Park Mausoleum in Beckley. Friends may call today from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Calfee Funeral Home in Beckley. Family and friends will serve as pallbearers.

On line condolences may be left at www.calfeefh.com

Arrangements by Calfee Funeral Home, Beckley.