Hazel Elizabeth Wright-Smoot, age 98 was called home to eternal life on Friday, June 11, 2010 at the Charles County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in La Plata, Maryland.

She was born on November 5, 1911 in Washington, DC to the late Odell Wright, and the late Georgiana Jackson Wright.

Hazel was baptized into the Catholic faith at an early age. The first six years of her life she lived in Washington, DC. After the death of her father she moved to Maryland with her grandmother the late Mary Jackson. Hazel was educated in the Charles County school system and truly enjoyed learning. She took pleasure in cooking and baking. Her beloved passion was traveling and she was a dedicated member of the Willing Helpers Society and Club 53.

Hazel began her long-term employment at the age of 14 with the Mitchell Family. While employed with the Mitchell Family, she also began a second job with the Charles County Board of Education as a cook, where she later retired. In the course of her travels, she met the late Joseph Smoot and they were married in 1930. Out of their union of love and matrimony, they were blessed with 11 children.

In addition to her parents, and husband, Hazel was preceded in death by her daughters, Mary Ann and Margaret Smoot; sons, Joe Louis Smoot and James Robert (Duke) Smoot; daughter-in-law, Francine Smoot; sons-in-law, Larry Woodland, Leroy Chase and Burnie Savoy.

Left to cherish fond memories are her children, John Smoot (Shirley), Harriet Rolland (Maurice), Jerline Smoot, Sarah "Sally" Whitaker (Kleston), Shirley Chase, Thomas Smoot and Carolyn Woodland; forty-five grandchildren, eighty great-grandchildren, eleven great-great grandchildren; sister-in-law, Barbara Knott-Smoot; brother-in-law, Francis Collins; beloved niece, Doris Brooks, devoted cousins, Natalie and Reginald Greene and a host of other relatives and friends.

Viewing, Thursday, June 17, 2010 from 6:00pm until 8:00pm, Prayers, 7:30 pm in the Chapel at THORNTON Funeral Home, P.A., 3439 Livingston Road, Indian Head, Maryland and on Friday, June 18, 2010 from 9:00am until Mass of Christian Burial, 10:00am at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 201 St. Mary's Avenue, La Plata, Maryland. Interment, Church Cemetery.

Arrangements provided by Thornton Funeral Home.