Della (Knop) Smardo

Della Louise Emilie Knop, one of thirteen children of Herman Carl Frederick and Alma Emilie (Leu) Knop, was born on October 15, 1917, in Clear Lake, Iowa.  When Della was one year old, the family moved to a farm near Malvern, Iowa.  She attended Pleasant Valley country school and Malvern High School.  She was confirmed at St. John’s Lutheran Church in rural Hastings, Iowa.  Della continued to work on the family farm until the age of 17, at which time she began working for other families.  During the next four years, she was employed by the dentist in Malvern at $4.00 per 6-day-week.  At the age of 21, Della and her sister Darlene, her brother Everett and sister-in-law Marie, all traveled to California where Della stayed with Marie’s parents and worked in a cannery for six weeks.  She then returned home for the next two years to help her mother with the housework and to aid her two brothers on the farm during the harvest season.
In 1940 Della and Darlene returned to Palo Alto, California. At a dance in January 1941, Della met her future husband Fred Louis Smardo who was enlisted in the Army Air Corps.  That May, Della went back to her family farm in Iowa, but early in September Fred came to visit and meet her family.  He ended up driving her back to California and that month they were engaged.  They had planned to wed in June 1942, but the events of Pearl Harbor forced them to advance their wedding date, and they married on February 6, 1942, in Palo Alto, California.  They lived in Merced until they were transferred in June 1942 to Fort Morgan, Colorado.  Katherine Leu was born in February 1943 while Fred was attending Officer Candidate School in Florida.  In June 1943 they were transferred to Boise, Idaho and in June 1944 were again transferred to Pueblo, Colorado.  In March 1945 their final transfer was to Walker Air Force Base in Hays, Kansas.  Due to his duties as an administrative inspector, the Air Force frequently moved Fred which proved difficult for Della.  After Fred’s discharge from the Air Force, they moved into a home six miles outside of Natoma, Kansas.  Their second daughter Sharon Lee was born in January 1946.
In March 1947 Fred and Della opened a privately owned hardware and furniture store in Natoma, Kansas.  Della waited on store customers while also doing the bookkeeping and ordering.  During this time, the family grew to include another daughter Barbara Louise born in 1949, and a son Fred Louis Jr. born in 1953.  While raising four children, Della managed their home and maintained a large vegetable garden for canning.  In 1953 they opened a second store in Plainville, Kansas where they moved in 1955 and built a new home.  They sold both hardware stores in 1959 so Fred could continue his new career selling insurance with Aid Association for Lutherans in western Kansas and then in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Fred was promoted to General Agent and transferred to Kansas City, Missouri in 1964.  Della supported Fred by performing secretarial duties for ten years, and later helped him build a home on the Lake of the Ozarks in Warsaw, Missouri.
Della enjoyed traveling with Fred to Western Europe, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska and Hawaii.  She had a strong faith in God and was active in her church where she served on the executive board of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League.  She loved education and vowed that all of her children would attend college because she was unable to follow her dream of becoming a teacher.  At the age of sixty, Della discovered ceramic painting which kept her very busy painting items for her family and friends.  Her beautiful birds and Santa figurines are still enjoyed by many.  Flower gardening was also a passion of hers and it seemed that she could grow anything.  Her yard and deck were always filled with flowers.  She also loved baking, canning goods, and playing with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren who all affectionately called her “Grammy”.  Her kids called her a “work-a-holic” up until the end.
Della entered into eternal peace on March 5, 2015, at the Brookdale Memory Unit in Overland Park, Kansas.  She attained the age of 97 years, 4 months, and 18 days.
She was preceded in death by two infant siblings; her parents Herman and Alma Knop; husband Fred Smardo; daughter Kay Melewski; grandson Matthew Wolcott; brothers Louis, Walter, Everett, Fritz; sisters Lucille, Darlene, Viola, Vanda, Lola and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.  Della is survived by her daughter Cheri Wolcott and husband Chris of Leawood, KS; granddaughters Kim Wolcott of Overland Park, KS; Melissa Wind and husband Paul and great granddaughter McKenna and great grandson Austin of Trenton, NJ; daughter Barb Corder and husband Roger of Leawood, KS; granddaughter Mindy Goy and husband Rhett and great granddaughters Adalie and Alexa, and great grandson Gannon of Malvern, IA; son Dr. Fred Smardo and wife Holly and granddaughter Carissa and grandson Craig of Fayetteville, AR; son-in-law Bill Melewski and wife Shelley of Kansas City, MO; and her brother Lester of Nashville, TN; cousins, nieces and nephews.
A visitation and luncheon will be held on Saturday, March 14, 2015 prior to the funeral service for friends and relatives at 1:00 pm with the funeral beginning at 2:30 pm at Bethany Lutheran Church, 9101 Lamar Avenue, Overland Park, Kansas.  Interment will follow at Johnson County Memorial Gardens.  The family kindly requests no flowers.  Because of her belief in education, memorial contributions can be made in her name to the Bethany Lutheran School Foundation with the memo line to Scholarship Fund, at Bethany Lutheran Church, or to the Alpha Delta Kappa Foundation with the memo line to Kansas State scholarship to Joyce Perkins, 1377 Stonecreek Drive, Lawrence, Kansas 66049.

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