Founding mother, member of first City Council, Lorna Smith helped make University Place
The University Place of today might not exist if not for the efforts of Lorna Smith.
The former mayor, longtime City Council member, civic activist and co-founder of the Pierce County city of 34,000 died Saturday evening from Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, according to granddaughter Elena Anderson.
Smith was 83.
Smith moved to unincorporated University Place area in the 1970s. She served as chair of the community council and on the land-use advisory committee before becoming one of the city’s first council members.
Oregon beginnings
Smith was born Sept. 2, 1937 in Eugene, Oregon to parents Joseph and Edna Webster.
The eldest of nine siblings, Smith served as a second mother for her brothers and sisters, Anderson said.
“She was always involved in the community, even when she was a teen growing up,” Anderson said. “She’s just one of those people that really wanted things to be the best that it could be for everybody.”
At age 17, she dropped out of school and married Bob Anderson. The young couple moved to Texas where Anderson joined the Air Force.
The couple had three daughters: Chris, Danice and Shawn. The family moved to Washington state in the 1970s. They divorced in 1977.
Smith moved to University Place from Puyallup in 1978. Shortly thereafter, she met Elmer Smith. The couple married in 1979.
When Smith and her first husband moved to Puyallup in 1970, she turned her jewelry-making hobby into a business venture. In 1972, she opened Court C Jewelry and Bead Shop in downtown Tacoma. Later, she owned Naja Silver Shop in University Place.
Jump into politics
Smith’s first jump into politics came when she assisted legislators in the Washington House of Representatives in the mid-1980s.
“Our whole family ended up volunteering as clerks and even as a child got to go down there and volunteer while she was working in Olympia,” Anderson said.
After she helped steer University Place into incorporation, she was elected to the city’s first council in 1995.
Smith’s tenure as councilwoman saw the development of University Place Town Center. That mixed-use $250 million project dragged on for years with changing contractors and priorities.
She also was instrumental in creating nearby Homestead Park. The 9-acre park is a shady oasis in the heart of the city. Smith, an avid gardener and conservationist, planted many of its rhododendrons herself, Anderson said.
Smith also oversaw the city’s fire department and led the Chamber of Commerce.
In 1996, she ran for Pierce County Council as a Republican. She was hoping to fill the seat of retiring member Sally Walker, for whom she served as assistant.
Smith was supportive of turning Chambers Creek properties into a premier park but not so keen with the idea of a golf course. She lost the election.
Smith served as University Place mayor pro tem and mayor 2000-2002.
On the City Council, Smith was known to look out for the business community. One council member called her, “the champion of small business.”
Smith ran one last time for the council — in 2009 — and lost.
In 2014 and retired from official duties, Smith worked to save the Kobayashi house in the park of the same name.
“I just think there have been too many homes that the city has purchased with land, and they just have been torn down,” Smith said at the time. “I think it’s a waste of public money.”
She also hosted an annual gathering at her home for National Night Out, the last time in 2019.
Anderson said her grandmother battled cancer for three years. Her family was able to be at her bedside when she died Saturday.
“I got to hold her hand as she was passing and read to her Revelation 21 and some chapters from Exodus about Moses coming down from the mountains, being radiant in the presence of God,” Anderson said. “And then she took her last breath.“
In addition to her husband, daughters and Anderson, Smith is survived by three other grandchildren and a great-grandson.
Graveside services be held 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 23 at New Tacoma Cemetery, 9212 Chambers Creek Road W., University Place.
