Ellen Smedley, art teacher in city schools for 42 years

Karen Bitting met Ellen Marsden Smedley in the 1970s, when both were teaching at the Sheppard School in Lower Kensington.

"She ran an unbelievable art program" for children from kindergarten through fourth grade, Bitting said, and did it without a classroom dedicated to art.

She had a cart filled with supplies on each of the three floors of Sheppard, Bitting said.

"Sometimes, after a class on the third floor," she said, "she would have to tear down to the first floor for her next class."

Mrs. Smedley, she said, was "a very talented artist and a very dedicated teacher."

On Thursday, April 2, Mrs. Smedley, 66, of Haddonfield, who retired in 2011 after 42 years as a Philadelphia public school art teacher, died at home of cancer.

Bitting, who taught English as a second language at Sheppard, near Second and Cambria Streets, retired as an assistant principal at Elkin School at D Street and Allegheny Avenue.

One of Mrs. Smedley's accomplishments, Bitting recalled, was to have the artwork of her elementary school students shown at the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill.

And her students often won awards in citywide competitions sponsored by the School District of Philadelphia, Bitting said.

After teaching at Sheppard into the 1990s, Mrs. Smedley taught at Conwell Middle School near Kensington Avenue and Clearfield Street before completing her career at Rhawnhurst School in Northeast Philadelphia.

Mrs. Smedley was born in Pottsville, Pa., and graduated from the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr. She earned a bachelor's degree at Moore College of Art and Design, and later a master's there, her husband, Chuck, said.

She worked in pastels and watercolors, focused on subjects in nature, and showed her works in South Jersey galleries, he said.

Besides her husband, Mrs. Smedley is survived by daughters Sarah and Becky, a brother, and a sister.

A visitation was set from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 10, at Kain-Murphy Funeral Services, 15 West End Ave., Haddonfield, with a funeral service set for 11 a.m. Saturday, April 11, at the First Presbyterian Church, 20 Kings Highway E., Haddonfield. Interment will be private.

Donations may be sent to www.markeimartscenter.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at http://kainmurphy.com.