Alma Elizabeth “Liz” Smith Horn, age 72 of Alabaster, passed away at her home after a brief illness in Alabaster, Alabama.
Born in Pell City, Alabama (into a career Army family) she moved and traveled extensively as a young woman and lived in many places including spending her early years growing up in Germany and at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The family eventually moved back to Alabama, where she graduated from Clay County High School in 1970 before attending Auburn University and finishing at The University of Montevallo, where she earned her Business Administration degree.
She made her career foremost as a mom, but was also a devoted bookkeeper and staff member at Creekview Elementary in Maylene, Alabama, for 20 plus years until her retirement.
She had a gift and talent for creating beautiful handmade items, of which she had no desire to keep for herself, she simply enjoyed the craft, the process, and giving it all away! She enjoyed crocheting hundreds and hundreds of hats and other items for the homeless and baby blankets for hospitals and babies in need.
She never claimed to be very social, but she came to enjoy being a part of the Alabaster Ya-Ya’s crochet group. She loved Led Zeppelin, loud 70’s guitar rock-n-roll music, reading her favorite authors, spending hours on the computer while crocheting, doting on her grandchildren, cooking, eating Chinese food, giving a good-natured hard time to the ones she loved, watching movies, and being exactly who she was no matter what, or when. She worked hard and made her own through it all. She tolerated little she didn’t care for and would say so.
She showed love by giving without allowing flowery appreciation, she was opinionated, but not without grace when it mattered, she would make up her mind and that was that…She was Mom, sister, Grammy, and she was Liz.
Liz is survived by her daughter April Moncrief (Jeff) of Dearborn, Montana, grandchildren Audrey Laurel Kuhlmann of Manchester, Georgia, Tristan Elizabeth Kuhlmann of Birmingham, three step-grandchildren (Jolyn, Hannah, and Madelyn), her son Matt Horn (Stefani) of Daphne, Alabama, granddaughter Madison Leigh Horn, and youngest son Jake Horn of Alabaster, Alabama, her sister Sharon McVay (Stanley) of Ashland, numerous nieces, nephews and extended family members.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Lloyd Levell Smith, Sr. and Flora Mai O’Neal Smith, her sisters, Pat Hanners, Ann Lumpkin, her brothers, James O’Neal, (and sister-in-law, Agnes O’Neal), Lloyd Smith Jr., and her beloved son Lucas Nathaniel Horn.
Benefield Funeral Home in Ashland is in charge of arrangements, and she will be interred at Clay County Memorial Gardens next to her son, Luke. On her wishes, there will be no public service, but anyone wishing to honor her memory should make a contribution to their local homeless shelter or women’s center.
