Myrtle (Smart) Tolley

CLICK HERE to view memorial services for Mrs. Tolley, and Jack Tolley

Myrtle Smart was born in Franklin, North Carolina to Floy Owens and Robert Smart.

She was the baby of the family. Her older sister was Mary Elizabeth, her older brothers were Charles Cleve, Herbert, and Joseph. All preceded her in death. Her mother, siblings, friends, and husband Robert Waits Tollley affectionally called her”Mutt.”

Myrtle and Robert birthed seven daughters and two sons: Marie Riffle (John), Linda Idank, (Robert, deceased), Donna Hudddleston (Lee), Cheryl McKenzie (Jarrett), Nella Hamtil (James), Robin Baltzell (Wesley), Rebecca Ray (Robert), sons Robert Wayne (deceased), Jack Willard (deceased). Myrtle had numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

Myrtle raised her children in the Baptist Church. Every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night you would find her along with her children in a church service.  After her children were grown and her husband passed away, Myrtle was commissioned as a missionary by the Southern Baptist Convention and served at the Houston Gano, Joy and Fletcher Mission Centers for a total of 25 years. 

Along with her daughter Marie and husband John, her granddaughter Deborah Sapp and her husband Michael were her caregivers.

Currently Myrtle was a member of Copperfield Church. Although lately, she could not attend church in person due to Covid19 restrictions, she attended her Sunday class on Zoom and watched the sermon online.

Myrtle remained active, alert and mobile almost to the end of her long life, she embroidered and made many quilts. She loved to read on her Kindle, she loved the enlarged print. She continued reading the Bible and she read about three books a week. (Amish novels became her favorite.) She loved to travel and visited relatives and friends from coast to coast. She visited her son in England, toured Europe and visited her daughter in Costa Rica several times.

She told her daughters her favorite color was red but she was conservative in her dress and she always chose a pink nail polish when she visited the nail salon. She loved playing games, especially Canasta. She loved telling stories about her family and growing up in Carolina.

Myrtle’s seven daughters miss their mother but a happy she is with Jesus and the angels.

A virtual service of interment for Myrtle and her son, Jack Willard Tolley will be performed at the Salem Cemetery in Salem, Kentucky

Boyd Funeral Directors and Cremation Services has been entrusted with their care.

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