As we remember her, Mignon Smith was unfailingly good at everything — except for sweating (she'd over-heat instead) and sleep. She crammed so much into her 68 years, there wasn't much time for rest.

Mitzy Mignon Jolly was born and raised in Teague, Texas, by doting parents L.A. and Wynema, surrounded by love, family and music. She was an only child but part of a close-knit extended family, often found sleeping with many cousins on a "Baptist pallet" at the house of her grandparents, Mom Pearl and Daddy Hub Turner.

Church was always a second home. Her childhood was one of tent revivals and all-night singings. With L.A. the music director at Teague's Eighth Avenue Baptist Church and Wynema a piano teacher, it wasn't long before Mignon became an accomplished pianist herself. She used that gift throughout her life — first at Eighth Avenue, most recently as pianist for First United Methodist Church of Palacios.
She was at a secretarial course in Waco when, by luck, she hit it off with a football player who'd grown up in the neighboring town. She and Paul Smith married a year and a half later.

They enjoyed the next 48 years together, raising two children, Mechelle and Corbett.

Traversing the state for Paul's work as a football coach (and later as a public-school administrator), Mignon somehow managed to juggle being a coach's wife, raising two kids and going back to school — graduating summa cum laude from Pan American University and tacking on two master's degrees to boot. She worked across Texas in a variety of public education roles— teacher, counselor, administrator — before retiring from Calhoun County ISD in 2008.

Mignon was so much more to those who knew her: a habitual card-sender, caregiver, conversationalist, cat lover, chef, gift-giver (and QVC junkie), loyal friend, snazzy dresser and international traveler.

She died March 24, surrounded by her family, from complications arising from an emergency surgery. In addition to her husband and two children, she is survived by a daughter-in-law, Nicole, and three grandchildren, Maren, Georgia and Lawrence. She was met by a large group of family and friends at the Pearly Gates, starting another glorious revival.

Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at Palacios Funeral Home, 701 First St., Palacios, Texas. A church service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at First United Methodist Church of Palacios, 209 Lucas Ave. The graveside service will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 31, 2016 at Union Cemetery, Freestone County, Texas.

Memorials may be made to Eighth Avenue Baptist Church in Teague or FUMC-Palacios.