Jeanette A. Smith Memorial Bethel Lutheran School Tuition Assistance Fund

(Photo comments). It was fairly common for Jan to come to school in costume. If you look at the photo with the long gown, you can see the Sahara over her shoulder. Charlie Brown was the theme in all of her rooms. Charles Schultz wrote the children an answer to one class. She also brought in a lot of outside speakers such as doctors, newspaper reporters, firemen, etc. She also organized a lot of field trips, and had a play she put on every year called "The Great American" play.

The purpose of the Jeanette A. Smith Memorial Bethel Lutheran School Tuition Assistance Fund is to provide support for Bethel Lutheran School, a ministry of Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church of Morton Illinois. Specifically the annual grants will, by priority: (1) fund tuition assistance for the benefit of students whose families may not have the resources or means to pay BLS tuition fees, and (2) fund such other needs as determined by Agency Administrators.

Jeanette A. (Jan) Smith thought that education was the key to solving a lot  of the World's problems. She was the founder and Director of the Family Resources Center, which was a Christian Library in Peoria, IL. When her own children were all in school, she decided to pursue her passion for education by returning to finish her own degree in education. She graduated from Bradley University Summa Cum Laude in 1972, and was immediately hired by District 709 in Morton, IL to teach 4th grade at Jefferson grade school. She also taught 4th grade at Lettie Brown grade school, and Blessed Sacrament grade school. She was a creative and innovative teacher that made learning fun for her students. She loved her students, and they loved her in return, and many of them will proclaim that she was their “favorite teacher”. This fund will continue her legacy by providing funding/tuition for students to continue their education.

Jan’s husband, Pete, decided to establish this new fund to benefit students attending Bethel Lutheran School, a school affiliated with Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church where Pete and his late wife began attending in recent years.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to this endowment fund, please click the button below for online donations. Or, you can mail a check to: Morton Community Foundation, 135 S First Avenue, Morton, IL 61550. Please include the words, “Jan Smith Fund” in the memo line or on a separate note in the envelope.

More about Jan…

Jeanette A. (Jan) Smith spent her primary schooling at Pleasant Hill Grade School in East Peoria, Il, and graduated from East Peoria High School . She graduated in the top ten of her class, and her favorite class was English where she loved to write theme papers. She was also chosen as one of the two student speakers at Commencement.

She won a scholarship to Bradley University for her Freshman year where she again excelled academically and was a member of Gamma Phi Beta. Although she had a scholarship for the balance of her education at Bradley, she chose to take a secretarial job at the Commercial National Bank in Peoria, IL.

It was during her time at the Bank, that she met a young sailor named Pete Smith and they were married on April 16th, 1955. They moved to Morton, IL in 1967, when all three of their children were in school, she decided to return to Bradley to pursue her goal of being a teacher. She was a member of Phi Gamma Phi Honor Society, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Bradley in 1972.

She did her student teaching at Jefferson School under Principal Eliza Ackerman, and Eliza was very impressed with her performance as a student teacher. Ms. Ackerman retired in 1972 as Principal of Jefferson, but not before she hired Jan for the 1973 school year. During her teaching career, Jan also taught at Lettie Brown, and Blessed Sacrament schools in Morton.

She was a creative, and innovative teacher who used her abilities to inspire her students to have a thirst for knowledge, and pursue further education. She brought in outside speakers from the Morton community, such as doctors, firemen, newspaper reporters, etc., and took them on Field Trips. It was not unusual for her to come to school in costume. In the photo below on the left, she is dressed in a Abaya while teaching about the Sahara . In the center photo, she is Mary Poppins. She was always kind, and loved her students. The far image is a letter she got from the Dean of the Education Department.

Another annual event was a class play dubbed The Great American Play with students dressed as famous Americans.

Her class room theme was always the Peanuts cartoon characters. They always wrote a letter to the creator Charles Schultz, and he always sent back an autographed reply.

The students loved her in return, and many of them claimed she was their (FAVORITE) teacher. In 1985, she left her teaching career, and founded the Family Resources Center in Peoria, IL which was a Christian library. By 2014 she had raised enough funds to build the new Family Resources Center shown below.

God gifted her with many talents , but she excelled most as a wife (68 years), mother of three children, seven grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren. Two daughters, and one granddaughter became teachers to carry on the tradition.

We all miss her terribly, and have created this endowment fund to honor her memory, and hope the fund will create some future teachers to carry on her legacy.