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Celebrated senior athlete passes

Leona Margaret Smith, flagship member of the northwest zone 10 senior games team, passed away at Mills Memorial Hospital last week
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Leona Smith was well-known in the senior athletic community for her positive attitude and love for the competition. “It is about the medals

One of Terrace’s most beloved senior athletes is on to her next race.

Leona Margaret Smith, maiden name Link, passed away at Mills Memorial Hospital last week at the age of 86.

Those who knew Smith will remember her dedication to the Legion, generosity to local causes, and unwavering community involvement.

And also the many strides she made as a flagship member of the northwest zone 10 seniors games squad where she excelled in track and field events since 1999, winning dozens of medals – mostly the gold kind.

She even broke a few world records during her tenure on the team.

In 2008’s games in Prince George, she was part the women’s 4x100 relay team that broke the world record previously held by a Brazilian team by 10 seconds. That same year she was awarded a Certificate of Athletic Achievement by Terrace City Council.

And then in 2010, she broke a second world record for the 4x200 relay at the World Masters Athletics Indoor Track and Field Championships in Kamloops.

When asked back then if she thought she’d be breaking world records in her eighties, she said she was completely surprised.

“There’s no way I would have dreamt that,” she said.

Health issues meant she couldn’t participate in last year’s games, but that was the first one she’d missed “for eons”, said zone 10 chair Bill Whitty.

“We just couldn’t keep her away in the past,” he said, noting her zeal for competition. Zone 10 honoured her life, as they do all members, at a meeting this weekend.

Smith hailed from Oxbow, Saskatchewan and lived in Manitoba and the Lower Mainland before moving to Terrace in 1966 with her husband, James (who went by Smitty), daughter Candy, son Jamie, and German shepherd, Sheba.

When the family first moved here, they lived in their camper while building a log house and their own sawmill and dam, we learn in her chapter of the local book “Skeena Stories: Strangers No More.”

More about her life can be found there – and of course by talking to the many people here in Terrace who were touched by her special life.