RACHEL S. O'DANIEL
Sept. 15, 1927-March 16, 2011
MOUNT OLIVE -- Rachel Smith O'Daniel, 83, passed away early Wednesday morning, March 16, 2011, at Mount Olive Care and Rehab Center.
Mrs. O'Daniel was born in Wayne County to the late Raymond Leslie Smith and Marie Edgerton Smith.
She and her only brother, Raymond P. Smith, who lived his adult life in Mount Olive, were reared on a family farm off a dirt-trodden path, which would later become Goldsboro's Country Day Road.
In 1945, she began attending Mercy School of Nursing in Charlotte, graduating in 1948, thus commencing upon what would become a lifelong career of nurturing and caring for others. Her chosen path of life started a nursing trend within the family, with several family members following her footsteps in ensuing years.
A habitual caregiver, whether to family or those in a professional setting, her career got its start with employment with the Red Cross bloodmobile, after which she developed a keen interest in polio nursing. This led to various opportunities, and her career culminated at Charlotte Eye, Ears, Nose and Throat Hospital, where she was head surgical nurse, and from which she retired.
She and her late husband, William H. "Bill" O'Daniel Jr., were longtime residents of the Monroe, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County areas, where they were faithful parishioners at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Charlotte.
After his passing and the years passed, she returned to her native Wayne County to reside, having spent the last few years at the Sterling House of Goldsboro, with her recent relocation to Mount Olive in its Care and Rehab Center.
A rosary service will be said Friday, March 18, at 6:30 p.m. at Tyndall Funeral Home Chapel in Mount Olive, followed by a funeral mass at 7 p.m., celebrated by Father James Garneau, after which her family will receive friends beginning at 8 p.m.
A second funeral Mass will be celebrated Saturday, March 19, at 11 a.m. at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Charlotte, with burial immediately following in Sharon Memorial Park Cemetery in Charlotte.
Mrs. O'Daniel is survived by a niece, Susan Smith Bundy and husband, Jay, of Mount Olive; a nephew, Raymond L. "Corky" Smith of Mount Olive; his twin daughters, Tracy S. Moore of Clinton and Trudy S. Soloman of Surf City; their husbands and five children; along with their mother, Judy T. Smith of Mount Olive. Also surviving are numerous cousins, and several nieces and nephews from her late husband's family.
In lieu of flowers, it is requested that memorial gifts be made to Shriner's Hospitals for Children, c/o Oasis Shriners, 604 Doug Mays Place, Charlotte, N.C., 28262.
A Tyndall service of Mount Olive.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on March 17, 2011 1:48 PM