Adelaide Louise Smith, 62, lived in Brooklyn, New York. On Saturday, September 22, 2012, Adelaide was traveling on a bus in Brooklyn, on her way to an outdoor music event.  While she was traveling, she was enjoying ice cream and laughing with her friend and MBA classmate, Tijuana Smith, when her heart stopped.  Tijuana and a good Samaritan on the bus performed CPR and they got her heart going again but she was unconscious.  She was rushed to New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, where they began a protocol to resuscitate her that was unsuccessful.  Per her health care directive, it was Adelaide’s wish to not be maintained on life support. Her children honored her wishes and she passed after Midnight, September 26, 2012.

Adelaide’s strong will and persistent vision granted her access to experiences that many people never attempt to imagine.  In her early twenties, she attended Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio.  She also studied classical voice in Boston, Massachusetts, at the New England Conservatory, the oldest independent school of music in the United States. Unable to complete her formal education due to financial hardships, she later sang pop music in a cover band that toured Europe.  In her thirties, Adelaide became a single parent who supported herself and her children as a consultant who worked with non-profits in Victorville, California, and churches in the Inland Empire.  She was a woman of great faith who answered a calling to serve as an evangelist in the ministry.  In her forties, Adelaide decided to go back to college and she completed an associate degree at Victor Valley Community College in Victorville, California, and she went on to to complete her bachelor’s degree at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.  

She was 58 years young when she moved to New York four years ago to pursue her MBA at Metropolitan College of New York; which she completed in 2011, with a 3.4 GPA despite financial insecurity, homelessness, two heart attacks and congested heart failure.   She was an example to us all that you can do anything that you set your mind to.  As she would say "see beyond your circumstances by staying  focused on your goals.”  We know that her charge to us all is to live our lives with the same vigor, help someone and leave a lasting legacy on the world... making it a better place.  

Adelaide's lasting legacy lives on in her two children, Ramona Wright, her daughter and her son Voltaire Xodus. She was married once and divorced from Tom Windom. She is survived by her stepmother Lucille Smith, siblings William, Jack, Saundra, Armstead, George, Roger, Cathy;  a host of nieces, nephews and an extended family of dear friends.  She was born March 6, 1950, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Louise and William Smith, Sr. She is predeceased by her parents and sisters Mable Smith and Carole Williams.