Catherine Smith Oswald

Catherine Smith Oswald was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Sally Ruth Collum Smith and Carl P. Smith on January 17, 1931. She was an avid reader since childhood, remarking that if the family could not find her, they would check the neighborhood library. She developed a lifelong love for Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers #4 painting after seeing a print as a student at Logan Elementary. She walked from Columbia Avenue to Marion Street for piano lessons and rode with her father to school in the mornings on his way to work at the Sumter Street fire station. His early call time gave her more time for reading. She enjoyed enduring relationships with her sisters Ruth “Marjorie,” who would host Christmas until she was nearly 90; Vivian, who shared a love for flowers; and Carl “Buck”, who became the family genealogist.

Though piano didn’t stick, Catherine’s husband Buren recalls hearing her playing from across the street. Though he was, in her words, a “country boy” from Leesville, SC, they were soon married. They celebrated their honeymoon in Asheville, NC, an overture to decades of traveling nearly every state of the US together. Buren helped raise Catherine’s young son Mark, and they soon had two of their own, Judy and Stephen. Catherine sewed most of the children’s clothes while also taking up her grandmother’s skill for quilting. Her eye for detail, color, and fine stitching produced dozens of beloved quilts gifted to family over a period of four decades, winning 14 ribbons from the South Carolina State Fair along the way. She passed a love for art, music, and reading to her young children, who worked together to find and purchase a print of Sunflowers #4 for their mom’s birthday. Later, Mark became a talented stained-glass artist; Stephen an opera singer and furniture builder; and Judy a crafter who helped design her home and encouraged her own children to make art and music.

Catherine was a loving mother-in-law to Judy’s late husband David and to her late son Stephen’s husband Robert. She attended the weddings of David’s daughter Michelle (Chris), and Judy and David’s children: Daniel (Kayla), Sierra (Blake) and Amber (Lawdan). She enjoyed many, many birthdays, Christmases and July 4ths with her great-grandchildren, Michelle’s children Josh and Leila. She delighted in living to meet Daniel’s son Ben and Amber’s daughter Davy.

Catherine lived through cancer twice, Parkinson’s Disease, and the deaths of both her sons. Her last years found her in constant pain, but she was not bedridden until the final three weeks of her life. Her last day was June 27, 2024. That morning, she passed her sewing machine to her grandson, who she had taught to sew. She spent the afternoon with her daughter and was relieved to hear Buren now qualified for the aid program that had eased the last months of her life. She passed in her sleep at home in the bedroom where Sunflowers #4 still hangs.

Funeral services will be held Monday, July 1 at 11 a.m., directly preceded by a viewing at 10 a.m., in the Moseley Funeral Chapel: 914 Meeting St, West Columbia, SC. Officiating will be Rev. Karen Young. Burial will follow at Westside Baptist Church Cemetery: 3111 Delree St, West Columbia, SC. The family would like to extend a special thanks to Hadora Hospice.