On October 22, 2026, we said goodbye to LaRema Smith, our beloved family member and friend who brought light, determination, and joy to everyone she met. Rema was 77 years old and lived life to the fullest.
She was born in 1949 in Plainfield, NJ and grew up in the Plainfield Public School System, graduating high school in 1967 during the height of the civil rights movement and the summer of love. She possessed a vibrant, youthful spontaneity—perhaps best proven when she scared her mother half to death by heading off to the historic 1969 Woodstock festival. While her mother watched the hippie madness unfold on TV imagining the worst, the resourceful and famously friendly Rema was already hitching a ride on the hood of a creeping car to make her way back on the one road that led out of town.
That same tenacity fueled a groundbreaking career. After attending Union College and graduating from Pace University, she started as a clerk at Teacher’s Insurance in Manhattan. Through sheer talent, she broke barriers to become the Vice President of Human Resources—a historic accomplishment for a Black woman at the time.
Rema truly accomplished everything she wanted to do and was deeply blessed by God. She checked off every travel destination on her bucket list, exploring England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Aruba, the Caribbean, the Holy Lands, and taking a breathtaking train ride across the Canadian Rockies. Back home, she filled her life with an eclectic soundtrack of gospel, country, folk, and jazz, and approached dining with the passionate palate of a world-class food critic. Yet, what Rema cherished above all else was her faith. She deeply studied the Bible through Biblical Study, fellowship and faithfully attended church whenever she was able.
Rema was exceptionally generous at heart and loved by all. She leaves behind a beautiful legacy and a family who adored her, including her brothers, John Courtney Smith, Cornell Woodard, and Christopher Woodard, her niece and nephew, Jalen and Cecily Smith respectively, her Aunt, Thelma Johnson, first cousins, June Roman, Kathy Dismus, BillieanneCollins, Alice Lockley, Niasha Spann, Raymond, Roy and Randy Sullivan, Linda, Donna, and Deborah Smith, Patricia Smith, Warren Goins and a host of others.