Obituary: May LaMotte Smith Hoerter, 92, of Lebanon
May LaMotte Smith Hoerter, 92, of Lebanon, died Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, in Lexington after a short illness. She 
was born May 11, 1921, in Lebanon and was the daughter of William Lancaster Smith and Dorothy Elinor (Spalding) Smith.
She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Plantagenet Society, Sovereign Colonial Society of American Royal Descent, National Society of Magna Charta Dames and Barons, Society of Descendants of Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, National Society Daughters of the Americans Colonists, National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century, Order of the Crown of Charlemagne, and the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.
As the wife of a career Air Force officer and pilot, she journeyed far from her small hometown to many stateside assignments as well as to overseas posts in Japan, Pakistan, and England, with many stops in between. She was an oral historian and a born storyteller, generous to a fault and with her strong opinions, a woman of high fashion and expectations, and a devout Catholic whose prayer for a peaceful death was fulfilled. She passed in grace surrounded by her family.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 68 years, George J. Hoerter; her parents; one sister, Margaret Caroline Smith; and two brothers, William Lancaster Smith and Samuel Spalding Smith.
She is survived by two daughters, Mollie Simms Washburne (Richard) and Dorothy Spalding Lewis (John); two sons, Sam Spalding Hoerter (Nancy) and George Joseph Hoerter (Eureka); and six grandchildren, Amye LaMotte Lewis, Elinor Spalding Lewis, Alison Kimi Matsunaga, Joseph Adam Hoerter, Samuel Benjamin Washburne, and George Hoerter Washburne.
A Mass of Christian Burial is 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014, at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Lebanon.
Visitation is 5-8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, at Bosley Funeral Home in Lebanon.
In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy are requested to take the form of donations to Our Lady of the Mountains School, 405 Third St., Paintsville, KY 40241.
The Bosley Funeral Home in Lebanon is in charge of arrangements.
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