July 19, 1927 – Sept. 10, 2022

Elizabeth Ann (Smith) Sawatzky was born to Dr. and Mrs. William Sawatzky in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 19, 1927. She had one sibling, Dorothy, of whom she was very proud. Elizabeth received two degrees from the University of Minnesota: Latin American Studies and an MA in Library Science.

She married Ray Smith in 1951 and moved to Mason City, Iowa in 1955. He accepted the job of head librarian, and she took a supervisory position in the regional library system. While there, Elizabeth developed and implemented an outreach program aimed at providing library services for rural farmland communities in northern Iowa. Elizabeth drove out to these communities and, through her great personal charm and enthusiasm, secured a parlor here and a garage there that would become the community’s lending library. She developed the collections of each and restocked the reading materials on a regular basis.

In one memorable instance, to ensure books for the Christmas holidays Elizabeth – nine months pregnant and in the early stages of labor – made a delivery to an outlying town as a blizzard was descending with only one lane of the road opened by the snowplow. Upon her return, she drove straight to the hospital, delivering her baby. Countless lives were enriched by her passionate devotion to ensuring access to books for rural Iowans.

In 1967 she moved her family to Pasadena taking a job at the Research Library at UCLA. After retiring from UCLA, she began another career by accepting a teaching position with LAUSD’s Adult Education Dept. at University High School, teaching into her early 80s.

Elizabeth had four children: Weston, Marina, Rowan and Lisa; four grandchildren: Bianca, Joel, Mira and Andriu; and two great-grandchildren: Penelope, and Marcus.

Elizabeth passed away on Sept. 10, 2022 in Montrose due to complications from COVID. She was 95.

Anyone wishing to commemorate her life could best do so by contributing to your local library or by simply reading a book.