Barbara May Smyth

Barbara May Smyth passed away peacefully on November 25th, 2024 at St Martha’s Place in Banff. Born in Calgary on March 8th, 1929, Barbara came to Banff in 1953 to marry Bill Smyth. She and Bill owned the Texaco station in Lake Louise in the late 1950s and in 1959 purchased the lodge at Moraine Lake. Barbara served as co-manager, bookkeeper and cook, all while managing three children. They bought the lodge at Emerald Lake in 1964. (They eventually hired a cook.) Barbara loved her adopted town and volunteered with the local Soroptimists chapter and at Mineral Springs Hospital.

Barbara and Bill sold their lodges in 1973. In retirement, they hiked, rode horseback and traveled. They visited most of Europe and especially enjoyed the West Indies. They took several hiking trips to New Zealand and were famously detained at gunpoint in Uganda. (The gunmen released them when they realized that the cousin Barbara and Bill were traveling to visit was their own beloved former schoolteacher.)

They also traveled every spring and fall to visit their ever-growing family. Barbara was a wise, gentle, and devoted mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, step-grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her grandchildren remember visits to Banff as an important feature of their childhood.

Barbara was predeceased by Bill in 2019. She will be remembered with love and appreciation by her children Kerry Smyth of Calgary, Andy Smyth of Vancouver and Bill Smyth of Corvallis, Oregon, grandchildren Tara Osler of Montreal, Keegan Osler of Calgary, Robyn Smyth of Vancouver, Lochlan Smyth of Prince Rupert, Laura Moth of Vancouver and Nick Smyth of Nyack, New York, step-grandsons Kevin and Ryan Diltz of Corvallis, and great-grandchildren Luke Smyth of Nyack and Saoirse and Ellara Smyth of Prince Rupert.

A celebration of life will be held in the new year; details to be determined.