Naomi Ellen Herndon (Smitty)

Naomi Ellen Herndon (Smitty) passed away peacefully in Bedford, TX on July 29, 2017. She lived in the Bedford Parc Place Retirement community for almost 9 years. Smitty moved from the long term family home in Falls Church, VA in 2008 to Bedford after her husband died in 2006. She had lived in her Falls Church home for more than 53 years. She will be interned at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC alongside her husband in the fall of this year. Smitty is survived by her four children: Robert E Herndon III, Judith A Atwood, Karen Morschheimer Graddy, and James E Herndon, and a loving, extended family of 7 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren.
Smitty was born in Salt Lake City on November 8, 1916 to Clarence and Bertha Smith. She grew up and attended high school in Little Rock, Arkansas where she excelled in track and field events. She continued on the Junior College where she earned a 2 year degree in Business and was captain of the fencing team. After graduation she worked at Plunkett Jarrell Wholesale Grocery and at GMAC as a secretary. She met Robert Herndon Jr. (Bob) during college. They married on November 8, 1941, shortly after he graduated from the Army Air Corps pilot school just prior to US participation in WWII. Not to be outdone, Smitty earned her pilot’s license before Bob as one of the first two women to do so in Arkansas. They moved around the US while Bob continued training to be a bomber pilot. While her husband flew missions in Europe and Africa, Smitty returned to Little Rock to care for her first born and worked in the office of her father’s paper supply business, Arkansas Paper Company. Two other children followed over the next several years.
At the conclusion of the war the family moved to Germany where the fourth child was born. While in Wiesbaden, Smitty enjoyed traveling with the children to many places in Europe, even learning to ski in Garmisch, Germany. After Germany, Bob was again assigned to the Washington, DC area. Smitty handled the needs of 4 active children including involvement in schools, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls and Bluebirds with den mother and leader activities, as well as duties expected of the wife of an officer in the military. When Bob took over command of ACIC in St. Louis, Smitty easily added additional responsibilities of social functions and fund raisers related to the change.
After returning to the DC area, the children were a little older. She became involved in the school PTA, this time as secretary. She loved learning new things and thus became good at furniture upholstery, ceramics, china painting, and lapidary with semi-precious stones. She taught ceramics at the Falls Church Community Center for several years. Another lifelong blessing was her green thumb and love of plants and gardens. Since the Victory Garden during WWII, her gardens and canning talents provided beauty and wonderful food. At her last home in Bedford she still had multiple plants, especially Iris, and a prolific herb garden. She also became a self-taught genealogist, tracing her and Bob’s families as far back as the 1600's.
During the time in DC/Falls Church she worked as office manager for the Washington Law Reporter. Her earnings went into retirement accounts and allowed her and Bob to travel the world to places like Nassau, Egypt, the Mediterranean, England, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Alaska, and Nova Scotia with many other US based river cruises in-between. They bought the beautiful “River Place” in 2001 in California, Maryland. Again she had a huge garden, with lots of visiting family and friends. Smitty became adept at crabbing and fishing: the catching, cooking, cleaning and eating.
She and Bob were active in the Rotary Club of Falls Church, especially while Bob served as president. Smitty received an honorary Rotary membership for her extensive work for them and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship.
Her last years living at Parc Place Retirement were filled with bridge, bingo, and many social activities. She was blessed with many friends living here.