Elizabeth Majors Smith Githens, 96, emeritus professor of English at Baylor, died Sunday, July 10, at the Stilwell Retirement Residence, where she had lived since 1997. A memorial service will be held at 10:00 am, Thursday, July 14, at OakCrest Funeral Home, 4520 Bosque Blvd, Waco. There will be a short receiving line and visitation after the service.

Born October 13, 1919, in Ripley, Tennessee, Elizabeth was the daughter of Helen Barbee and William Daniel Majors. The surviving member of her generation, one of eight siblings and fifty-four first cousins, she never tired of recounting stories of their small-town life together, much to the delight of all. An honor graduate of Blue Mountain College in Mississippi, she came to Waco in 1941 to attend graduate school at Baylor, where she met physics professor Arthur Wallace Smith. They were married on July 20, 1944, and until his untimely death in 1955, Elizabeth and Arthur also spent time in Austin, Nashville, and Oak Ridge as he advanced his graduate research.

During her own teaching career at Baylor, from 1945 to 1969, she inspired a generation of students not only to love literature, most especially poetry, but also to take pride in their own writing. From 1963 to 1965, she pursued doctoral studies at the University of Kansas. Back again at Baylor, she remained active in Round Table and AAUP, was faculty sponsor of Kappa Theta sorority, and even enjoyed playing piano (with two fingers) for the two-year-olds at First Baptist Church.

After her marriage in 1969 to Sherwood Githens, Jr., a Duke University professor who had served as physics chairman at Baylor from 1949 to 1952, Elizabeth brought her love for language to the junior high classroom in Durham NC. After she was again widowed and moved back to Waco, she ventured in 1987 to Shimonoseki, Japan, to teach for a year at Baiko Gakuin University.

Elizabeth is survived by her daughters, Sarah Smith Randles (Waco) and Ellen Smith Dunlap (West Boylston MA), stepson Sherwood Githens 3rd (Ellicott City MD), stepdaughter Janet Githens Williams (Canfield OH), and stepson John Githens (Clinton WA). The husband of her late stepdaughter Nancy Githens Washburn, Reverend Phillip Washburn (Chapel Hill NC), will conduct the memorial service. Surviving also are twelve grandchildren – Alice Randles Sauer, Ross Randles, Cary Randles, Libbie Armstrong Rowell, Jay Fields, Timothy Fields, Beth Miller Rapp, Amanda Williams Craig, Alaina Githens, Susan Washburn Jones, Nathan Washburn, and Esther Washburn Mezey – fourteen great-grandchildren, and scores of nieces, nephews, and inlaws.

Her entire family wish to thank Gloria Stonum and Belia Cisneros for their loving care of Elizabeth in recent years and ask that, in lieu of flowers, gifts in her memory be made to Stilwell Retirement Residence, 5400 Laurel Lake Dr, Waco 76710, to support that wonderful facility for retired educators.

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