Jane (Buckley) Smith

SHARON — Jane (Buckley) Smith, 82, died at Sharon Hospital on June 8, 2007, after a long illness.

She was born in New York City on June 28, 1924, and was the daughter of the late Aloise (Steiner) and William Franks Buckley.

Mrs. Smith spent most of her life in Sharon, the family having moved there from Bronxville, N.Y., two years before her birth. While abroad as a child, she attended Cours Fenelon in Paris, France, and, some years later, St. Mary’s Convent in South Ascot, England. She completed her secondary education at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City and at Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Conn. She earned her B.A. at Smith College.

She married William Francis Smith of Dayton, Ohio, in 1949, and they moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he was engaged in oil exploration for the next seven years. Four of their six children were born in Calgary. The Smiths moved back to Sharon in 1956 and bought the historic Van Cortlandt house on Sharon Mountain, which they sold after a fire. (It later became Sharon Manor.)

The Smiths were divorced in 1967 and Jane Smith and the children moved to Carrier Close, right next to the Sharon Country Club, of which she was a member for many years. Mr. Smith, who predeceased his wife, was in real estate and served one term as state representative in Hartford.

Mrs. Smith was active in local civic affairs and was instrumental, with the late Alice Mix, in a campaign to replant trees on the Sharon Green, and in efforts to enact Sharon’s original zoning ordinance. She was also active on the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Historic District Commission, the Sewer and Water Commission and on the boards of the Hotchkiss Library and the Sharon Historical Society.

Her six children attended Town Hill and Indian Mountain schools.

Mrs. Smith is survived by two sons, Cameron of Sharon and New York City and Bruce Buckley of Princeton, N.J.; four daughters, Kimberly Niles of Groton, Mass., Talbot Briggs of Simsbury, Jennifer Smith of Alexandria, Va., and Susan (Kate Gray) of Portland, Ore.; five grandchildren; and one grandson; and six brothers and sisters, James and Priscilla Buckley who both live, as their sister did, on Great Elm Drive in Sharon, William F. Buckley Jr., the editor and writer, of Stamford, Conn., Patricia (Buckley) Bozell of Washington, D.C., F. Reid Buckley of Camden, S.C., and Carol Buckley of Columbia, S.C.

A funeral Mass was held June 12 at St.Bernard’s Catholic Church in Sharon, where Mrs. Smith worshipped most of her life.

All other services are private. Memorial contributions may be made to Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association, Salmon Kill Road, Salisbury, CT 06068. The Kenny Funeral Home in Sharon has care of arrangements.