White Funeral Home
400 First Street West
Independence, Iowa 50644

Independence – Virginia L. (Carlton) “Ginny” Smith, 80 years old, of Independence, IA, died Friday, November 18, 2022, at Prairie Hills Assisted Living in Independence, following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Graveside services will be 10:30 a.m. – Monday, November 21, 2022, at St. John Catholic Cemetery, Independence. Public visitation will be 4:00-6:00 p.m. Sunday, November 20^th at White Funeral Home, Independence.

Memorials will be directed to the church and Cedar Valley Hospice. Condolences may be left at www.White-MtHope.com.

Virginia Lee Carlton was born January 20, 1942, in Minneapolis, MN, the daughter of Lawrence W. Carlton and Evelyn Marie (Whipple) Carlton. She graduated from Waterloo West High School with the class of 1960. She married Ronald Bowers, and the couple later divorced. On July 10, 1972, she was united in marriage to Claude Edward Smith Jr. in Waterloo, IA. The couple made their home in Independence where she was a homemaker and owned and operated the Pronto filling station in town. Claude preceded Ginny in death in 2015.

Ginny loved animals of all kinds. She especially liked to watch and feed the birds and deer. One of her favorite hobbies was to breed and raise Tennessee Walker Horses. She also loved to travel. Her travels included Scotland, Tennessee, and Las Vegas. She liked to watch Western movies and she had a classy sense of fashion – often having her outfits color coded. Ginny and Claude enjoyed entertaining friends and family at their home as well as on the river. She liked to have river floats and play with her grandchildren on the sandbar by her house. She also loved to take the grandchildren for golf cart and ATV rides.

Ginny is survived by her children, Tracy Bowers of Coralville, IA, Terri Jo (Rob) Thompson of Independence, IA; seven grandchildren; eight great grandchildren; one brother-in-law Roger (Nancy) Taylor; and a niece and nephew. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Claude Smith Jr.; and one sister, Nancy Taylor.

White Funeral Home, Independence, IA is in charge of arrangements.