"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

-Helen Keller

Juanita Ivy Smith, affectionately known as "Nita", daughter of the late Abraham (Bay) and Haulean Tindal Smith was born on July 17, 1956, in Summerton, South Carolina. She departed this life on August 23, 2024,  at Lexington Medical Center, West Columbia, South Carolina. She was a 1974 graduate of Scott's Branch High School. After graduating high school, she attended Benedict College and graduated from Columbia Commercial College. She had various careers, and her initial work experience started at Bay Shop, the family business. She was employed by the South Carolina Highway Department  in Columbia, SC and Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, NY. Her true passion: however, became cosmetology which was her career for 30-plus years where she shared her faith while using her gift of hair care and styling. She was the owner of Unique Images in Manning, South Carolina where she built a clientele of many loyal customers and loving friends. She then moved to Columbia where she managed Smartstyle Hair Salon and continued building a loyal clientele. She loved her community and was instrumental in starting a Food Share Program servicing the Summerton and Manning areas distributed through St. Mark AME Church. She also served her community as an initial board member of the Scott's Branch  76 Foundation. To know her was to love her and there were very few people that she met that didn't develop into a lifelong friendship. She leaves to cherish her loving memories: her only child Fatima A. Smith; four sisters Ella Darlean (Joseph) Jenkins, Jacquelyn (Horace) Anthony, Valarie D. Smith, Lyndra (Keith) Bowman; one brother Bruce M. Smith; one aunt Minnie B. Smith; three nieces Kierra, Jazlynn and Jada Bowman; one nephew Taj Lee; two grandnieces Xaria & Lena Lee; one grandnephew Gabriele Lee; and a host of relatives and friends whom she loved.