On June 5, 2020 at 4:40p.m. our dearest mother was called home to the Lord.

Russelle Shirlene Smith was born in Monroe, North Carolina on January 29, 1951 to Herman Fisher and Evelyn Thompson. At a young age, Russelle and family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where she attended elementary, middle, and West Charlotte High School. She excelled in music and academics. She had a passion for community, faith and church, and social justice. She was early identified as a leader and a true scholar. These things would later provide her opportunities in education, career and political involvement. From 1968 through Barack Obama, she was active at the political and institutional level from adding a union at US Airways to going door to door advocating for the 2008 and 2012 Barack Obama campaign.

Russelle would later attend Hampton University in Virginia where she majored in English Literature. Following college, Russelle moved to Pittsburgh and became a teacher. Education, communication, and diction remained paramount and she would later pour this into her children and the youth. She taught us all to lead and speak with love and faith.

In the summer of 1976, she met Willard Burley Smith Sr. outside of the Crafton Lumber yard. They married on August 29, 1979 and had 3 beautiful children: Willard Burley Smith Jr., Melissa Gayle Smith, and Erin Lynne Smith.

Russelle is survived by her husband, children and grandchildren: Mahara Shay Smith and Willard T. Smith; her siblings, James Hanover Thompson, Pastor Brenda Graham, Dwight Thompson, Pastor Phyllis Thompson, Pastor Lee Thompson; numerous nieces and nephews and a village of close friends and loved ones.