Edith Hoover

Ada Edith (Smith) Hoover, 96, of Wichita, went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Wednesday, November 4, 2020.

She was born in Bertram, Texas, on October 12, 1924, to Charles Pinkney Smith and Addie Beulah (Crooks) Smith, and she married the love of her life Winfred Martin (WM) Hoover on September 4, 1943.  They settled in Burnet County and farmed the land together for the first several years of their marriage. In 1950, WM moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas, so he could attend the Bible Baptist Seminary where he studied to become a pastor. Edith faithfully served at his side and was his partner in ministry, as well as in life, as he pastored for fifty years at the Fairpark Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. She was a devoted wife and mother, homemaker, grandmother, and great-grandmother who loved her family second only to her Lord. She was also a friend, mentor, encourager, witness, and prayer warrior, touching lives wherever she went. She was Sister Hoover, Edith, Mom, and Granny, and she will be missed. “Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her…favour is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.” Proverbs 31:28, 30

Edith was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-nine years Winfred Martin Hoover; son Roger Winfred Hoover; brothers Albert Smith and Walter Smith; and sister Ethel (Smith) Marshall. She is survived by her brother Charles Smith (Johnnie) of Arlington, TX; daughter Betty Riffee (Bill) of Wichita, KS; son Mark Hoover (Mary Alice) of Andover, KS; grandchildren Belinda Lawson (Mike) of Brewster County, TX; Becky Riffee of Wichita, KS; Beverly Welch (Rich) of Wichita, KS; Jonathan Hoover (Wendy) of Kechi, KS; Jared Hoover of Andover, KS; and Stephen Hoover (Elle) of Wichita, KS; and great-grandchildren Cheyenne, Summer, Audrey, Liam, Sophie and Zeke Hoover and Jackson Welch.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established through NewSpring Church for the work of Jim and Shelley Dinsmore, missionaries in Peten, Guatemala.

Services will be held on Monday, November 9, at 1:30 PM at NewSpring Church in Wichita, Kansas, with visitation beginning at Noon at NewSpring; and on Wednesday, November 11, at 10:00 AM at the chapel at Hoover’s Valley Cemetery in Burnet, Texas.