(Peg) Smithers

Moline, Illinois
Ruth ?Peg? Smithers, 94, of Moline, Illinois, passed away Friday, January 21, 2011, at her home of 54 years, with her family present.
Services are 10:30 a.m. Monday, January 24, 2011, at First Congregational Church, 2201 7th avenue, Moline. The family will greet friends at a visitation and luncheon in the lower level of the church immediately following the service. Private family burial will be in Greenview Memorial Gardens, East Moline. Memorials may be made to the church or a favorite charity.
Trimble Funeral and Cremation Center, Moline, is entrusted with arrangements.
The former Ruth Bailey Allderige was born September 20, 1916, in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Morton John and Ruth Dibble Allderige. She married John A. Smithers of Elkhart, Indiana, on June 28, 1939, in Upper Montclair, New Jersey in the home of her Aunt Eleanor Elggleston. John died December 14, 2003.
Peg was a proud graduate of the University of Michigan in 1938, where she majored in History and was member and President of Gamma Phi Beta sorority. She was also a Pan Hellenic member, and later that organization?s President and Woman of the Year in 1985.
Peg joined First Congregational Church in 1952, becoming a very active member of the church and the choir and President of the Women?s Association. She was also active in the community as member and President of the Jane Adams Circle of Kings Daughters, Literary Guild, and Church Women United. She was also a board member for the Rock Island County Historical Society and Auxiliary, Pathway Hospice, and Visiting Nurse and Homemakers. She was active with P.E.O. Sisterhood, Girl Scouts, and a member of the Quad City Symphony for 30 years.
She was employed by Moline School District #40 as a Social Studies teacher at Coolidge Junior High from 1962 until her retirement in 1981. She enjoyed reading, preparing book reviews, needlework and crossword and jigsaw puzzles.
Peg is survived by four children, Jenny Wennekes and her husband Harry of Spain, Celia Venable of Kansas City, Missouri, Geoff Smithers, and Steve Smithers and his wife Becky, all of Moline; five grandchildren, Scott Hodge, Brad Hodge, Katherine Venable, Stephen Venable and Jacob Smithers; five great-grandchildren, Nathaniel Hodge, Noah Venable, Ellie Hodge, Grace Smithers and Olivia Smithers; her brother John Allderige of Ithaca, New York; and her first son-in-law, William Hodge of Summerfield, Florida. She was preceded in death by her husband John and parents.
The family would like to pass along a special thanks to Kathy, Lesa, Home Instead, Friendship Services, Trinity Medical Services and Pathway Hospice for their genuine care of Peg.
Peg?s family invites friends to share stories and condolences and light a candle in her memory at www.TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.