Alice Copp Smith
Died
Alice Copp Smith
Alice Copp Smith, ne;e Mary Alice Copp, came to the end of her long life in October of 2019, shortly after her 88th birthday. A lover of words, gardening, cooking, music, and swimming, Alice had the ability to tease out (and remember!) the life story of anyone she met.
Born in 1931 in Spokane, WA, the only child of Earle and Mildred Copp, Alice grew up in the wheat farm town of Lind. Her family escaped the Adams County heat every summer by decamping to their Camano Island beach house, where Alice enjoyed clamming, crabbing, salmon fishing with Earle, and blackberrying and piemaking with Mildred. At the age of 17 she entered Whitman College in Walla Walla, then transferred to Pomona College in 1950, where she met and later married Kingston Smith. Alice was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1952 with a degree in English.
In 1959 the couple and their two young daughters left Southern California for a four-year stint in the English midlands where King worked for McDonnell Douglas. Their third child was born there.
Upon returning to California in 1963, Alice earned her M.A. in English from UCLA with a focus on the works of John Milton. Feeling the pull of her beloved green home state, she returned to Washington in 1974 and settled on Mercer Island, where she lived for over 40 years, surrounded by her native plantings, birds, orchard, and the lake she so loved to swim in.
Deeply political, Alice was a passionate Democrat and a lifelong advocate for social justice and equal rights, volunteering for the Fair Housing Coalition in L.A. and protesting the Vietnam war. In Seattle, she was editor of Pacific Search magazine from 1975-79, then for Artsline, and later a contract editor at Microsoft Press and for independent book packagers on everything from technical manuals to travel, cooking, hiking, and gardening guides. Alice loved early music and played Alto recorder with a devoted group of fellow musicians from manuscripts in old notation. She edited Seattle Recorder Society's newsletter for over 10 years and helped to found the Port Townsend Early Music Workshop. A lover of languages, she instilled in her children a love of reading and Latin and Greek etymology as well as what she referred to as "shop talk" from a plethora of disciplines. She traveled widely, including trips to Costa Rica, Mexico, Norway, France, and Hawaii. Alice could hear a poem once and recite it perfectly. She took great pride in her native garden, stewarding her many plants carefully through every winter. She was legendary for her apples and raspberries, shared far and wide with neighbors, friends, and family. Swimming in Lake Washington was a particular joy, and she participated in the Polar Bear Swim at Clarke Beach with a stalwart group of friends up until the age of 86. Until her last days, she would routinely light up a room with her smile and couldn't contain her infectious enthusiasm at learning or sharing something new. In her last year of life at Aegis Living, her favorite activities were trivia and word games, and the sing-along sessions. She knew every word of most songs and sang a beautiful harmony.
She is survived by her three children Polly Smith Hopkins, Andrea Smith, and Gordon Smith, & four grandchildren, all of whom carry on her love of cooking, reading, clamming, crabbing and swimming in Puget Sound.
A celebration of life will take place at the Mercer Island Community Center on Saturday, March 14th from 2:00-5:00. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center, your local library, or a .
Alice Copp Smith, ne;e Mary Alice Copp, came to the end of her long life in October of 2019, shortly after her 88th birthday. A lover of words, gardening, cooking, music, and swimming, Alice had the ability to tease out (and remember!) the life story of anyone she met.
Born in 1931 in Spokane, WA, the only child of Earle and Mildred Copp, Alice grew up in the wheat farm town of Lind. Her family escaped the Adams County heat every summer by decamping to their Camano Island beach house, where Alice enjoyed clamming, crabbing, salmon fishing with Earle, and blackberrying and piemaking with Mildred. At the age of 17 she entered Whitman College in Walla Walla, then transferred to Pomona College in 1950, where she met and later married Kingston Smith. Alice was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1952 with a degree in English.
In 1959 the couple and their two young daughters left Southern California for a four-year stint in the English midlands where King worked for McDonnell Douglas. Their third child was born there.
Upon returning to California in 1963, Alice earned her M.A. in English from UCLA with a focus on the works of John Milton. Feeling the pull of her beloved green home state, she returned to Washington in 1974 and settled on Mercer Island, where she lived for over 40 years, surrounded by her native plantings, birds, orchard, and the lake she so loved to swim in.
Deeply political, Alice was a passionate Democrat and a lifelong advocate for social justice and equal rights, volunteering for the Fair Housing Coalition in L.A. and protesting the Vietnam war. In Seattle, she was editor of Pacific Search magazine from 1975-79, then for Artsline, and later a contract editor at Microsoft Press and for independent book packagers on everything from technical manuals to travel, cooking, hiking, and gardening guides. Alice loved early music and played Alto recorder with a devoted group of fellow musicians from manuscripts in old notation. She edited Seattle Recorder Society's newsletter for over 10 years and helped to found the Port Townsend Early Music Workshop. A lover of languages, she instilled in her children a love of reading and Latin and Greek etymology as well as what she referred to as "shop talk" from a plethora of disciplines. She traveled widely, including trips to Costa Rica, Mexico, Norway, France, and Hawaii. Alice could hear a poem once and recite it perfectly. She took great pride in her native garden, stewarding her many plants carefully through every winter. She was legendary for her apples and raspberries, shared far and wide with neighbors, friends, and family. Swimming in Lake Washington was a particular joy, and she participated in the Polar Bear Swim at Clarke Beach with a stalwart group of friends up until the age of 86. Until her last days, she would routinely light up a room with her smile and couldn't contain her infectious enthusiasm at learning or sharing something new. In her last year of life at Aegis Living, her favorite activities were trivia and word games, and the sing-along sessions. She knew every word of most songs and sang a beautiful harmony.
She is survived by her three children Polly Smith Hopkins, Andrea Smith, and Gordon Smith, & four grandchildren, all of whom carry on her love of cooking, reading, clamming, crabbing and swimming in Puget Sound.
A celebration of life will take place at the Mercer Island Community Center on Saturday, March 14th from 2:00-5:00. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center, your local library, or a .
Source: Seattle Times
Published on: 01-03-2020