Obituaries : * Marie Jauregui Smith; Retired Schoolteacher

Marie Jauregui Smith, 78, who taught hundreds of children to read in her years as an elementary school teacher in Santa Paula and Ventura, died Sunday at her home in Ventura. She was 78.

Smith taught school for 27 years, said her daughter, Janine Clark.

“That was her most important thing, that kids learn how to read,” Clark said.

Smith was born in Santa Paula and graduated from Santa Paula High School in 1933. She graduated from UCLA in 1937, and soon after started teaching at Barbara Webster School in Santa Barbara.

After taking several years off to raise her family, she started teaching first grade at Mill School in Ventura.

She retired in 1977 and spent her time learning to play the piano and singing to rest home residents with the Ventura Voices choral group.

She leaves her husband of 51 years, Jack; her sons, Jack Smith of Ojai and Christopher Smith of Arroyo Grande; and her daughter Janine Clark of Dayton, Nev. She is also survived by brothers Gracion Jauregui of Santa Paula, Toots Jauregui of Santa Paula and Bob Jauregui of Penn Valley, and by eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Visitation will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, and the rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura. Funeral Mass will be at 9 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady of the Assumption church.

The family requests that memorial donations be made to the American Cancer Society or the Ventura County Library.