Obit – Mrs. Kristen Smith

A well-known Defeated Creek store clerk, Mrs. Kristen Smith, was pronounced deceased at 1:37 a.m. Tuesday morning September 24, 2024 at the High Point – Riverview emergency room after being discovered unresponsive at the family’s Harris Hollow Road farm.

Mrs. Smith was at the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson and was to be cremated at Cumberland Family Services in Algood. The cremains will be forwarded to the Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service in Iowa City, Iowa where her Iowa family will conduct memorial services.

A local memorial service will be announced for a later date at the Justified Riding Club clubhouse in the Gladdice Community.

An avid motorcyclist, she and her husband enjoyed riding and touring on the couple’s Harley.

Born Kristen Kay Uhler in Springfield, in Sangamon County, Illinois on May 18, 1975, she was reared in Iowa City by her adoptive parents, the late Robert Uhler and the late Janet Kay Franklin Uhler Lanik.

She graduated in 1993 from the West High School in Iowa City and was a graduate of Kirkwood Community College in Grand Rapids, Iowa with an Associates Degree as a veterinary science assistant.

In Iowa City on September 16, 2017, she was united in marriage to Iowa City native, Paul Aaron Smith Jr.

Mrs. Smith relocated to Smith County from Iowa in 2015 and soon thereafter began working at Martin’s Grocery in the Defeated Creek Community where she was a friendly face and respected and loved by all of the customers who became acquainted with and loved her smile and pleasant demeanor. 

Mrs. Smith was a Christian.

Surviving in addition to her husband Paul of only seven short years are two step-daughters, Felicia Kay Smith of Dewitt, Iowa, Braidin Grace Smith of Marion, Iowa; brother, Mike Uhler of Iowa City, Iowa and step father, Bruce Lanik of Coralville, Iowa; five step-grandchildren.

SANDERSON of CARTHAGE