Erin Nelson Sweeney
Inez Smith, 97, cuts out campfire shapes for a children’s activity as she volunteers at the Chelsea Public Library on June 3.
If you visit the Chelsea Public Library on Monday afternoons, you may catch a glimpse of Inez Smith working on a special project.
The 97-year-old volunteer spends several hours each week at the library because she enjoys being around people and likes to help. She recently stuffed all the bags for summer reading and on the day of her interview with 280 Living, she was cutting out decorations for crafts for the Tot Spot program. Other days, she prepares books to go into the book sale closet or helps check the deliveries.
Librarian Dana Polk said that Smith was one of the library's first volunteers, starting back in 2003 and continuing until she had to take a break so she could care for her husband, Charles, around 2006. The couple was married for 58 years and had four children.
Smith has moved with the library throughout its various locations, beginning at the original location (in the upstairs portion of the current library building, when the downstairs was a bank), to Chelsea City Hall, to the gray house and now at its current location.
After Charles passed away, Polk said she convinced Smith to return a few years later, and Smith picked up where she left off — volunteering and taking part in the Bring Your Own Craft group each week — until the pandemic brought on another multi-year pause.
Smith visited the library with her daughter earlier this year, and she once again decided to resume her volunteer duties.
“We convinced her to come back and volunteer just on Mondays,” Polk said. “I pick her up and take her home, she volunteers for about two hours each week. She’s a special lady to the library.”
“I just do whatever they need doing that I can do,” Smith said. “It gives me something to do that takes up my time.”
Volunteering at the library works out great for Smith, who said she loves to read. Her favorites are novels and Christian fiction.
Chelsea Public Library isn’t the first that Smith has worked in. After attending Phillips High School, she was a student at the University of Alabama, studying home economics, and spent time working in the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library.
She and Charles graduated and were married in 1948. He worked and they lived in Acipco in north Birmingham. She later worked for the former Alabama Gas, doing home demonstrations and cooking schools.
Smith found her true calling after she spent time substitute teaching.
“The principal at the elementary school called and asked me if I could come sit with a class,” Smith recalled. “He couldn't find a substitute and someone to sit with the class. I decided I wasn’t going to just sit, so I started teaching and we had a good time.”
The administration at the school encouraged her to get her teaching certificate and she did, along with a master’s degree, and she became an eighth grade science teacher at Bottenfield Junior High School.
It was 1976 when the Smiths moved to Chelsea, and Smith said she felt like she’s always lived there. A mother to four and grandmother to eight, Smith hosts her family for dinner every Tuesday night for those who can come, and her daughters and daughter-in-law bring the food. Two of her children live nearby and the others visit regularly.
Another weekly event for Smith is spending her Thursdays with other seniors at the Chelsea Community Center. The group plays cards and games, eats lunch together and enjoys playing again until around 2:30 p.m.
Smith’s daughter, Mary, said that after her father passed away, she and her siblings weren’t going to let their mom just sit around, so they made sure she had things to do. She now has plans two days per week instead of five, and she said the library and community center days are her favorites.
Mary Smith and her siblings are proud of their mother and said that volunteering at the library really helps her.
“She is a people person,” Mary Smith said. “Instead of sitting at home, she gets out and goes up there and she works and she talks to people. She has always liked working in the library. I think it does a world of good for her. At 97, a lot of people don’t have places they can go and do things.”
Mary Smith also knows the importance and enjoyment of her mother’s Thursdays at the community center.
“Sometimes they play dominos, but Rook is her favorite game,” she said. “She and the same lady play Rook every Thursday. We know not to schedule anything for her on Thursdays because she’ll get you if you schedule something over her game day!”
