Barbara Leavell Smith

East Poestenkill- Barbara Leavell Smith (who mostly wrote this obituary) was born in New York City on April 2, 1928, to Hugh Rodman Leavell of Louisville KY and Staunton VA and Barbara Peace Hazard Leavell of Syracuse NY. Barbara passed away suddenly at her residence on May 27, 2024. She grew up in Louisville, spending summers at Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks. As a child, she loved dogs, writing stories, putting on plays with her friends, walking in the woods, paddling, rowing, swimming, helping people, algebra, geometry, ancient history, backyard baseball, badminton, croquet, soccer, field hockey, climbing trees, hillbilly music, Hallowe’en, Christmas Eve, and thinking about the meaning of life.

Barbara attended Smith College, where she took her junior year abroad, opening the way to a lifelong love of France, where she afterward studied two years in Paris, and later in Aix-en-Provence. She did graduate work at Middlebury College and the University of North Carolina.

In 1954, Barbara married Walter Sherman Smith (“Sherm”), of Watertown NY. The two settled at Cranberry Lake to raise their three children and run a boatshop. It was a good life, but they both had some growing up to do, separating after eight years. 

Barbara became a beloved French teacher at Milton Academy near Boston, pioneering the use of open classroom techniques and the use of theatre to teach French. She acted in the French Repertory Theatre of Boston. During this time, Sherm came to a hospital in Boston for a critical operation, and the two, by now having done the necessary growing, rediscovered their love. They planned for Sherm to stay with the family for his recuperation, but suddenly word came from the hospital that he had died from a heart attack.

Three years later, Barbara, hiking alone at Cranberry, came upon Roy Sjogren originally of Brooklyn NY, camping alone. It had been her childhood dream to meet her love in the woods. Roy and Barbara began their new life together in 1978 in East Poestenkill NY. With the help of her good friend CarolLynn Langley and with the welcome of the Union Gospel Church, she founded the Fantastic Fools, a children’s acting workshop.  This soon led to a branch at the Poestenkill Summer Camp, and then to the Rensselaer Senior Acting Workshop. She acted and directed in amateur theatre, first with Richard Jones at Russell Sage College, then with Tamarac Players (later called the Highlight Acting Troupe), then with Circle Theatre Players and the Ghent Playhouse. Roy and Barbara acted together in Foxfireand On Golden Pond.

Poetry has been another lifelong calling.  She won several poetry awards, and published four books of poetry and a semi-autobiographical novel about her time in France. 

Barbara is survived by her three children, Anna Hazard Fowler Bannon of Cumberland ME, a gifted artist, naturalist, teacher of magical arts, and fairy godmother, Sarah Sherman Ferguson of Seymour TN, a committed and compassionate RN, Lt. Colonel of the USAF (Ret.), diabetes educator, and ballerina, and Walter Fox Smith II, a beloved professor of physics at Haverford College, creator of PhysicsSongs.org and the annual physics sing-alongs at meetings of the American Physical Society, and baritone in his church choir.

She is also survived by six grandchildren, James David and Brian Stewart Ferguson, Benjamin Hazard Fowler, and Grace Clemens, Charles Benton, and Thomas Quinn McKenzie-Smith. Roy’s children, Leslie Sjogren Stewart, and Peter and Ernest Sjogren have been among her best friends.

Please send donations to the Union of Concerned Scientists. 2 Brattle Square Cambridge, MA 02138

A memorial service will be held on June 22 at 2pm at the Union Gospel Church 1039 Plank Road in East Poestenkill. Hopefully, we will be able to broadcast the service by zoom:
https://haverford.zoom.us/j/91325278470
passcode: 161658

Because of the large number of people who would want to speak at the service, there will not be a part of the service dedicated to such remarks. Instead, we ask that you leave your memories, stories, and photos in the guest book part of this web page, or bring written notes to the service; we will collect these and use them to make a memory book. We would be also be delighted if you would tell us your memories and stories during the reception after the service.

Visit www.perrykomdat.com for directions and a guestbook.