Peg Morelan Griffith Smith

Peg Morelan Griffith Smith, age 82, passed away Wednesday, June 10, 2020 in Wichita, Kansas.

Peg was born October 5, 1937 to J.W. (Buck) Morelan and Jewell Sybil (Orcutt) Morelan. On April 4, 1958, Peg married John W. Griffith. He passed away September 9, 2002. She was a widow for eight years and then married Wayne V. Smith on November 20, 2010.

Peg attended Humboldt USD 258 first grade through 12th grade and graduated in 1955. She held several offices in high school, was a cheerleader, and was crowned the homecoming queen. She attended Chanute Junior College and College of Emporia. Peg also attended Basic School of Banking, Intermediate School of Banking, Advance School of banking, and later graduated from the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, Wisconsin. She then attended Compliance School of Banking plus went to several Banking Personnel Conferences throughout the United States.

Throughout Peg’s career she worked at the Bank of Commerce in Chanute, Kansas for three and a half years and Humboldt National Bank/First Commercial Bank for forty years. After she retired from the bank, First Commercial Bank in Overland Park, Kansas asked her to assist with the merger of Enterprise Bank & Trust of St. Louis, Missouri and First Commercial Bank of Overland Park, Kansas. Afterwards, she retired for the second time. After her husband passed away, Peg was a Para for the Humboldt Academy for approximately two years. Later, Community National Bank in Humboldt asked her to come work for them. She worked for seven more years.

Peg was in Operetta’s in grade school and in Choir and Special Choir in both Junior and Senior High. She was also a member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Choir in Humboldt, Kansas, where she was a church member, and St. Cecilia Music Club-Choir in Chanute, Kansas. Peg held offices in the music club. She was the pianist for the Primary Department at St. Peter’s for over thirty years. She sang in the Biblesta choir for two years. Peg was in the Graduate School of Banking Choir in Madison, Wisconsin for three years. The choir performed for graduation all three years that she attended school there. Peg played clarinet from 5th grade through her freshman year of college. She went to state in a clarinet quartet her sophomore years of high school. She directed the Joyful Hand Chime Choir at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church for over thirteen years. Peg’s sister, Norma Griffith Moore started the choir. She transposed the notes into symbols and directed the choir for the first few years. Doris Orcutt Baker, their cousin, also assisted with the hand chime choir along with several students and some other adults. The hand chime choir was a group with special needs who lived in a group home in Humboldt. They designed their choir robes and the Lady Elks, from Iola, purchased the fabric and made the choir robes. They went all over SEK performing for churches, nursing homes, clubs, and organizations. The hand chimes were purchased with the memorials from her dad and mom, Buck & Sybil (Orcutt) Morelan, and from her aunt and uncle, Harvey and Velma (McIntyre) Orcutt. Music was very important to her family.

Having faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was number one in Peg’s life. Living a Christian life, sharing God’s love and leading others to Christ was part of her legacy. She loved to witness to others about God’s grace and His love for each of us. Peg was blessed with many miracles by our awesome God. In September of 2016, Peg was given zero chance to live and chose to have experimental mitral valve surgery, which gave her 50% chance to live. She was one of fourteen in the whole world who had the surgery. Two representatives from FDA out of Washington D.C. and two from the company who developed the mitral valve came from California for the surgery. The surgical team were cardiac surgeons from London, Italy, and Germany along with her Cardiac Surgeon who was originally from Lebanon. After the FDA saw the procedure, they approved the new technique. Peg was in research as they didn’t have much history on that type of procedure. Research paid for two operations. In January 2019, the Cardiac Surgeon told Peg that after the FDA saw the procedure, they approved the surgery and that she had saved thousands of lives all over the world by letting them do the experimental mitral valve surgery.

Peg’s family meant the world to her. She had a great childhood! Peg was an “outdoors” girl. She loved to climb trees, play football, basketball, and baseball with her younger brother, sister, and all of their friends. She loved to go exploring in the field around the neighborhood, wading through the slough catching crawdads for her dad, mom, Jim and Jody to go fishing. She didn’t like to fish unless someone would bait her hook and take the fish off of the hook. She loved helping her dad plant flowers and work in the garden. Peg also loved being a kid with her children, their friends, the grandkids, the great-grandkids, and her foster daughter’s boys. They were the light of her life. John and Peg took John Bradley’s friend, Scot Billingsley, in as their own off and on for over three years. They took several of Brenda’s friends in as one of their own too. Peg even took some of the kids’ friends on their vacations. She loved cooking and baking. She taught John Bradley, Bren, Brad, and Ashley how to cook many dishes. When the great-grandkids came along, she loved working with them and making her mom’s, Grandma Sybil Morelan’s, homemade German rolls. They all had a lot of fun and laughs cooking and baking.

When John Bradley and Brenda were small, Peg would take them bike riding in the country and would show them all of the beautiful flowers, trees, animals, ponds, birds, and butterflies, and told the kids that God gave them to us and they were all free. The three of them loved the country scenes with the cattle and horses in the pastures and fresh bales of hay in the fields. She loved horses! Wayne would take her riding in the country so she could enjoy all of the country scenes. Peg’s family moved from the farm when she was six years old and the love of country living stayed with her all of her life!

She loved working with the kids, grandkids, great-grandkids and their friends in football, basketball, and other sports. It was so rewarding for her to watch the kids enjoy what she loved doing. As the kids grew older, she loved watching them in their sporting and dancing activities. She was their biggest cheerleader. She enjoyed teaching all of the kids how to climb trees and jump down safely. Peg was around 70 the last time that she climbed a tree. She loved taking the kids swimming along with her sidekick, Wanda Hack. She loved taking all of the children to parks in Humboldt and other towns. They made it a fun day.

Peg enjoyed sewing and made many garments for a lot of family members. She made curtains, drapes, quilts, and many other items too. Many times she made her own patterns for the garments or added to the original design of the patterns. Peg made 6 of her great-grandkids quilts that had their names, date of births, their weight and even height. Her sister, Norma, helped her learn techniques that she did not learn in school.

Peg believed it was important to work in the community and make it a better place for families to raise their children. She was a member of the Humboldt Chamber of Commerce, Humboldt PRIDE, HHE (Neosho River Park) Committee, the Humboldt Historic Preservation Alliance, and Thrive of Allen County. She received awards from the American Heart Association, Humboldt Chamber of Commerce, Humboldt PRIDE, and the Donna Talkington Award from Thrive of Allen County. It is the highest award that Thrive grants. In the past, she served on the Allen County Memorial, as a chairperson for the American Heart Association for over 30 years, Humboldt Rotary Club, a volunteer for Thrive of Allen County, Biblesta Committee, Downtown Action Team, Humboldt Housing Action Team, was on the Humboldt Library Board, Humboldt High School Alumni Secretary and Treasurer for several years, and was a member of the Christian Writer’s Fellowship of Girard, Kansas. Her favorite committee was working in the flower beds at the Neosho River Park. She and her husband, Wayne, also worked in the four flower beds around the bandstand on Humboldt’s town square. This was her quiet time with the Lord and Savior. She loved pulling weeds and planting flowers while listening to all of the nature sounds. When she finished the flower beds, they looked like a picture someone had painted, only more beautiful! After she was put on oxygen, she would drag her big oxygen tank with her and lie on the ground and work. She enjoyed working on the Veteran’s Memorial Patio that the Humboldt Historic Preservation Alliance had too. Honoring our veterans and those who are serving now was very important to Peg. Her late husband, John Griffith, his six brothers, her husband, Wayne Smith, both of her brothers, Billy Ray Morelan and Jim Morelan, all served in the Armed Forces. Peg’s oldest brother earned the Purple Heart during WWII.

Peg had a natural talent in making people laugh! She lifted people up with her positive attitude even though she was going through tough times. Her family was very important to her. She wanted to set a good example for her family and others. She loved working in the community and loved doing for others. Peg left her paw prints on many people’s hearts!

Peg was preceded in death by her parents, son, John Bradley Griffith, two infant brothers, Charles Elvin Morelan and Bobby Eugene Morelan, older brother, Billy Ray Morelan, and her five year old sister, Reva Ann Morelan.

Peg is survived by husband, Wayne V. Smith; daughter Brenda L. Feagins and husband, Jeff; sisters, Norma Griffith Moore and Jody Vaughan and husband, Dennis; brother, Jim Morelan and wife, Milly; grandsons, Brad Griffith and wife, Laurie, Hunter and Garen Honeycutt; granddaughter, Ashley Travis and husband, Ty; great-grandchildren, Gage, Bailey, and Eli Griffith, Bradley Lowry, Ellee and Rylan Travis; foster daughter, Rebecca Honeycutt and husband, Tim; step daughter, Sunny Shreeve and husband, David; step grandchildren, Kristal Mann, and Stacy Mueller and husband, Mark; step great-grandchildren, Kaylee Becker, Piper and Dagan Barney, Andrew and Matthew Arana, Stephen and Ben Leo, Jacob, David, and Sarah Avery.

A funeral service in honor of Peg will be Saturday, June 20, 2020 at 10:00AM at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service in Iola, Kansas. Burial will follow at Mount Hope Cemetery in Humboldt, Kansas. Family will greet friends in The Venue at the funeral home on Friday, June 19, 2020 from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.

Memorials in honor of Peg are suggested to The American Heart Association Research and may be left with the funeral home. Condolences may be left online for the family at www.feuerbornfuneral.com .