Hortense Child Smith

Hortense Hogan Child Smith served as first counselor to Ruth Hardy Funk in the general presidency of the Young Women organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 to 1978. She served also on the Young Women (MIA) general board and Adult Correlation Committee.

Hortense served as a U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services military unit) from 1943 to 1945, with the rank of Lt. (jg) Corpus.

She married Robert Rumel Child in 1939 and they had two children. She served as head of the Friends of Gilgal Garden that worked to preserve her father-in-law’s unique art project from being torn down to make way for a housing development. The garden was purchased by the Friends of Gilgal organization and Salt Lake City took over its preservation and it is a city park.

After Robert Child died, she married Eldred G. Smith in 1977.

Hortense was born on May 6, 1919, in Thatcher, Idaho, and died on May 17, 2012.