M. Smith, Tracked Mother Bethel History
By John F. Morrison, Philadelphia Daily News
Jan. 30–THE PARISHIONERS of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church treasure the church’s 213-year history and preserve it in extensive archives housed in the church museum.
That’s where a quiet, creative woman named Monique Smith lent her devotion to that history and her ability to take infinite pains to record it for posterity.
She was a member of the church’s historical society.
“She was very meticulous,” said the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey N. Leath, pastor of the nation’s first black church. “She didn’t just enter a name, she pored over all the information. She took her job very seriously to learn and preserve our history.”
Monique Smith, who worked for 22 years in the data processing department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and was a talented painter who exhibited her work widely, died Friday. She was 48 and lived in Queen Village.
Mother Bethel has special significance in the African-American culture nationwide. It was founded by Richard Allen after he and Absalom Jones were humiliated at St. George’s Methodist Church, the nation’s oldest Methodist church still going strong at 235 N. 4th St. Mother Bethel was dedicated on July 29, 1794.
Monique also led tours of the church, sang on the choir, studied in the Sunday and Bible schools and worked in the evangelism ministry.
“She had a very creative intelligence,” Leath said. “She was quiet, kind and loving. The children of the church loved her.”
Monique showed some of her paintings at the church, but also applied her artistic talents to the production of church flyers and posters.
At the Art Museum, her immediate supervisor, Raymon Solis, manager of the data department, praised her dedication to the museum.
“She was very passionate about the museum,” he said. “She always knew what the museum was doing, what was coming up. She was quiet and shy and kept to herself.”
Monique had a two-room apartment in Queen Village and one of the rooms was her studio, where she produced paintings in a variety of media, mostly abstracts. She exhibited in various venues around the city and had success in selling some of her work.
She was born in Philadelphia to Michael Smith and the late Shirley Smith. She graduated from Girls High and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She also took courses at the University of Pennsylvania.
Besides her father, she is survived by a brother, Eric.
Services: Memorial service at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mother Bethel AME Church, 419 S. 6th St.
—–
To see more of the Philadelphia Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Philadelphia Daily News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.