Eleanor K. Smiley | Store co-owner, 93
Eleanor Keenan Smiley, 93, of Blue Bell, retired co-owner of Smiley's Furniture, died Tuesday at Mercy Suburban Hospital in Norristown following hip surgery.
Mrs. Smiley grew up in South Philadelphia. Her father, John, was killed in an oil refinery explosion before she was 10, and her mother raised her and her two younger brothers. As a young woman, Mrs. Smiley worked for McGinnity & Murta furniture store in Philadelphia, where she met Bill Smiley. They married in 1941. For many years the couple operated a furniture store in Chester.
After she and her husband retired in the late 1970s, Mrs. Smiley volunteered at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby.
She enjoyed painting ceramics, playing cards at Edgmont Country Club, and summers in Ocean City, N.J. She and her husband traveled in the United States, the Caribbean, and abroad, and after he died in 2000 she traveled with friends, including an "Octogenarian Spring Break" to Florida in 2004.
She was always fashionably dressed, her family said, and loved pink.
Mrs. Smiley is survived by sons Bill and Jerry; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Friends may call from 9 to 10:30 a.m. today at Donohue Funeral Home, 3300 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square. A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. today at St. Anastasia Church, 4580 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square. Burial will be in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple Township.