Dolores May Emery Smith Dies August 5

Dolores May Emery Smith of the Shinnecock Indian Nation died at home on August 5, 2019, surrounded by her family. She was 85.

Born on May 4, 1934, to Lorraine Lee Rich and Richard Emery at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, she attended P.S. 26 and Brooklyn High School for Homemaking, graduating in 1950. She was the granddaughter of Lillian J. Lee; her grandfather was killed on the Long Island Rail Road, for which he worked, before she was born, and she never knew his name.

Her maternal aunts were Marguerite Kellis, Lillian Williams, Marianne Hunter Houston, Adeline Bess, Eloise Barnes, and she had an uncle whose name is unknown. She had one brother, Allen Rich, who predeceased her; two sisters, the late Dorothy Weeks and Beatrice Perry of the Shinnecock Reservation. Her mother, Lorraine, died in May 1934, and she and her siblings were adopted by their aunt and uncle, Marianne “Aunt May,” whom she considered her mother, and Franklin Houston. They spent summers at Shinnecock with their grandmother, Lillian J. Lee, until she died.

She married Kenneth S. Smith in 1953; he predeceased her in 2010. They had four children: Joshua R. Smith II, who died in 2005; Kenneth S. Smith Jr., who died in 1979; Bruce A. Smith and Regina L. Smith.

She is survived by a son and a daughter, Bruce and Regina of Shinnecock Indian Reservation; and a grandson, Timothy Kyle Smith of Florida.

Funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton.