In the late 1940s, her family was transferred to New Orleans where BJ attended junior high school and was active in the student body, even being crowned princess of the Marti Gras Ball. The family was transferred back to her home state of Texas where she graduated in 1954 from Pasadena High School, Pasadena Texas.
After high school, BJ enrolled and graduated from a fashion modeling course of study and enjoyed modeling until she met and married Milton Lyle Smith, the father of her four children, in 1955. Over the next 20 years, BJ devoted herself to being a homemaker and tending to her family.
In the early 1970s, BJ began a career in real estate that became one of her passions for years to come. In the 1990s she received her real estate broker’s license and operated a successful property management company in Idyllwild where she lived until she passed away Monday, Jan. 20, 2014. BJ was an artistic person who loved to paint, and make pottery and beautiful jewelry. She loved collecting antiques, family gatherings, gardening and traveling with her husband Ed. BJ was well known for her beauty, grace, Southern charm and hospitality.
BJ is survived by her sister, Patricia Willis of North Carolina; children, Steven Smith of California, Cynthia Baumann of Nevada, Perry Smith of Colorado and Valerie Kneefel of Nevada; husband D. Edward Pyncombe of Idyllwild; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial and celebration of life service will be held sometime this summer.
