Aug. 23, 1981 – Aug. 14, 2013

WOODVILLE — Graveside memorial services for Kathryn Lynn Kennedy Smith, 31, of Chicago, who died Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2013, at her residence, will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Evergreen Cemetery in Woodville with the Rev. Joseph M. Caruthers III officiating.

Burial will follow under the direction of Newman Funeral Home in Centreville.

Ms. Smith was born Aug. 23, 1981, in Natchez, the daughter of Charles W. and Nancy McGraw Kennedy.

Kathryn, also called Kay and Katie, grew up in Natchez. She graduated from Adams County Christian School with honors in 1999 and was elected by the faculty to the Hall of Fame. She attended college at the University of Southern Mississippi in Long Beach and received a bachelor of arts degree in the administration of justice. She was employed as an executive assistant in Gulfport, before moving to Chicago in 2011, where she worked as an admissions counselor and restaurant manager.

Ms. Smith had a lifelong love for animals, particularly cats she rescued and adopted. She also loved to travel and had visited Europe twice in her lifetime. A music lover from an early age, she played piano and guitar.

She was preceded in death by her maternal grandparents, Harry Burnell and Louisa Harkey McGraw; her paternal grandparents, Phillip Clyde and Alene Ivy Kennedy; and two first cousins, Jay McDaniel and Jay Arkwright.

Survivors include her parents of Woodville; one sister, Karen Leigh Kennedy Novak and husband, Jamison; one nephew, Trenton Charles Novak; one niece, Janice LaVerne Novak of Elberta, Ala.; her former husband, Jason M. Smith of Gulfport; and a number of loving aunts, uncles and cousins.

The family requests memorials be made to the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society, 392 Liberty Road, Natchez, MS 39120, the Humane Society of South Mississippi, 2615 25th Ave., Gulfport, MS 39501 or to a charity of choice.