Jayne Shouse Smith

Tribute to Jayne Shouse Smith
Jayne Smith breathed her last on May 18, 2025, in Newport News, VA.
She was compassionate, generous, cheerful and spent her life prioritizing service to others. Last December, Jayne’s many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren paid tribute to her “99 years of making the world a better place.” Everyone loved Jayne’s “crazy cake,” and one soon appeared when she came for a visit. Bruce’s daughter Kamille remarked that Jayne deserved “an entire crazy cake to yourself this year! One you didn’t have to make for yourself.” His son Sean thanked her for “providing love, compassion, and knowledge to this family that will be passed down through generations! The love I receive from my father I know was learned from you, and I will be eternally grateful.” Elton’s son Adrian recognized that things were hard for Jayne in last few years of her life, saying, “I have always been and continue to be inspired by your selfless determination and spirit.” Carol’s daughter Glynis imagined Jayne in happier times, indulging her love of reading in a sunny spot. Elton appreciated her “empathy for everyone around her, especially Bolivian women.” His wife Suzi wrote, “I admire you for all the years you spent working for the United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Women in faith and caring for others, in countries abroad, here at home and at Brooks-Howell.”
Jayne Moss Shouse was born on December 7, 1925 in Cleveland, Tennessee. Her parents were Elton Eldridge Shouse and Bertha Dill Shouse. She had an older brother Elton who was an OB-GYN and she is survived by her younger brother Bill who is a retired Presbyterian minister.
Highly educated for a woman of her generation, Jayne earned a bachelor’s degree from Maryville College and pursued graduate work at Vanderbilt University. There she met the dashing undergraduate, LeGrand Smith, who had grown up in South America and planned life as a missionary. Jayne signed on for the adventure of a lifetime and married LeGrand in Cleveland, TN, on June 20, 1949. Following his ordination, they were assigned to Bolivia to begin their work as missionaries with the Methodist Church.
Jayne and LeGrand spent more than twenty years in ministry in Bolivia. They served in churches and educational institutions in Sucre, Santa Cruz, Tarija, Cochabamba, and La Paz. They had four children: L. Benjamin and Elton were born in Sucre, Bruce and Carol in La Paz. They always felt that missionaries should work themselves out of a job. In 1973, they moved back to the United States where they spent a few years working in northern New Mexico before being called back to the mission field. They returned to South America and spent another twenty years serving in Uruguay and then in Argentina.
Jayne and LeGrand spent their retirement years at Brooks-Howell Home in Asheville, NC, where they lived for a quarter of a century. Brooks-Howell is a community for retired missionaries. In Asheville they continued to serve their church and community. In 2023, they moved to Newport News, VA, to be closer to their son, Elton.
Elton’s daughter Maia beautifully summed up Jayne’s approach to life in service. “I appreciate the daily work you’ve done in every community you have lived in— organizing, helping, teaching—quietly doing the work that needs to be done.” As an example, while she lived in Tucuman, Argentina, Jayne became aware that a local maternity hospital had no system for keeping records. In partnership with another woman, she set to work to remedy this deficiency, establishing procedures and protocols for record-keeping at this local women’s hospital. This kind of unglamorous service tends to go unnoticed but has profound and lasting effects. In the case of “La Maternidad,” record keeping made it easier for doctors and nurses to provide better care to the women they served and even save lives. Time after time, year after year, Jayne showed us that “character lies in the day-to-day and love is shown by accepting and helping.” We are blessed to have had such a loving model for a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother.