Obituary of Edrey Smith Albaugh

Edrey Smith Albaugh, 88, passed away on Sunday, January 25, 2009, at her home in Vancouver, Wa. She was born on August 11, 1920 in Chicago, Ill to Royal Bliss Smith and Marie Harrison Smith. While growing up, she studied the piano for many years, accompanying numerous choral groups and playing at the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair. She attended Chicago public schools, graduating from Morgan Park High School in 1938. She attended both the University of Chicago and Oberlin College, graduating from Oberlin in 1942. After college, she worked at the Manhattan Project in Chicago as Executive Secretary to Glenn Seaborg, a future Nobel Prize winner. While working for Glenn, she met Frederic William Albaugh, a young research chemist. They were married in 1944 at the University of Chicago. At the end of the war, Fred and Edrey returned to Los Angeles, where Fred resumed his pre-war work in the oil industry. In 1947 they moved to Richland, Wa., where Fred went to work for GE at the Hanford Plant. Fred promised Edrey they would live in Richland for only five years, as the dusty boomtown environment was quite an adjustment for a girl from Chicago. As it turned out, Edrey lived in Richland for almost 60 years, raising her family there and growing very attached to the community. She loved the open sky, the dry brown hills, and the Columbia River. She spent many happy years working in her yard and walking her black labs along the Columbia. Edrey was active in Richland's Central United Protestant Church, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, PEOs, and Questers. She was a loving and supportive wife to Fred and a devoted mother to her three children, always there in times of need and in joy. Her children were blessed to have had the loving and secure foundation in life that Edrey provided them. She will be dearly missed but will always be close in our hearts and memories. We love you, Mom. Edrey is survived by her children, Jeffrey Smith (Francine) Albaugh of Camas, WA; James Frederic (Audrey) Albaugh of Long Beach, CA; and Jean Albaugh McKnight of Anchorage, AK; her sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and Edward Mulligan; her cousin Helen Ritter; her four grandchildren Kestly Albaugh, Stephen Albaugh, Lee McKnight, and Lindsey McKnight; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Fred; her brother, Royal B. (Bud) Smith; and her parents. Funeral services will be held Friday, January 30th at 10:00AM, at the Events Center at Sunset Memorial Gardens, behind Einans Funeral Home, in Richland. Memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Vancouver, WA or Kennewick, WA. Brown's Funeral Home and Cremation Services in Camas has been entrusted with local arrangements.