Carolyn McClung Bass Smoak of Raleigh died May 11

Carolyn McClung Bass Smoak of Raleigh, N.C., widow of James (Jim) Fletcher Smoak, passed away on May 11, 2023, after a brief illness.

Her family will host a memorial service to celebrate her life on Thursday, May 25, at 4 p.m. at the Country Club at Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh in the Williamsburg room.

Born June 4, 1934, in Lexington, Carolyn was the oldest child of the late Marguerite Edgar and Lloyd Wilson McClung.

She graduated from Lexington High School in 1953, and from the University of South Carolina with a BA in journalism in 1957, later earning a MEd in media arts. She was a media specialist at Hand Middle School in Columbia, S.C., for 22 years, retiring in 1999.

At USC, she held many positions on the student newspaper, The Gamecock, rising to editor-in-chief her junior year. She was a member of Chi Omega sorority and Alpha Kappa Gamma honor society.

Carolyn was first married to Jack Bass, with whom she had three children. She was a member of the American Library Association and the S.C. Association of School Librarians.

Carolyn and Jim Smoak were married in 1991, living in Columbia for several years before moving to Fairfield County, near Ridgeway. She was a member of Cedar Creek Baptist Church.

Following retirement, Carolyn and Jim traveled extensively in their motor home. Carolyn especially enjoyed South Carolina’s beaches and mountains, and the American West. In addition to travel, she enjoyed watching birds and other wildlife, particularly at her rural home. She was also an avid reader.

Carolyn was a bright, beautiful, witty, stylish, loving, non-judgmental woman, who at 88 still drove her car, made new friends, fed the local birds, and read the latest novels as they hit the shelves at the local library. She will be missed by the many whose lives she touched and enriched.

Survivors include sons Ken Bass (Antoinette) and David Bass (Bonnie), and daughter, Liz Broadway (Joel), all of Raleigh, N.C.; stepchildren Jimmy Smoak (Grace) of Central, S.C., John Robert Smoak of Columbia, S.C., and Tara Turner (Chris) of Goodlettsville, Tenn.; sister, Mary Edgar Hendren of Roanoke, and brother, Lloyd McClung Jr. (Nancy) of Alpena, Mich. She also had seven grandchildren and six step-grandchildren.

There will be no burial, as Carolyn has donated her body to science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations may be made to the Cedar Creek Baptist Church Building Fund (1920 Cedar Creek Road, Blythewood, SC 29016) or Unto Me, Inc., a Bible and child support mission in Nicaragua administered by John R. Smoak (P.O. Box 972, Blythewood, SC 29016).