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PENSACOLA NEWS-JOURNAL MOLINA PARK, FLORIDA 
PHOTO: Sharon Smith, a fourth-grade teacher at Molino Park Elementary School, died Friday shortly after students had been dismissed for the summer. (Special to the News Journal) Sharon Smith waved goodbye and blew kisses Friday to the Molino Park Elementary School students she loved dearly. It was a big day for the fourth-grade teacher. Friday was the last day of school. The day she was to retire after 36 years. But just moments after the last students had been dismissed, Mrs. Smith complained of shortness of breath. An ambulance was called. A few moments later, Mrs. Smith, 57, died on the way to West Florida Hospital, said her niece, Doreatha Jackson. "She had the first heart attack at school," she said. "She was revived, and en route had another one. She had a history of heart trouble." Principal Alice Woodward said students were not on campus. "The children had not been gone very long — two or three minutes, maybe five," she said. Woodward said Mrs. Smith was a fine teacher who loved technology, and was someone on whom teachers and students could depend. "Any child who had her would tell you Sharon was their favorite teacher," she said. "She had a caring attitude and saw something good in every child and every teacher." 'One in a million' Mrs. Smith spent her career at the Molino school, starting in 1972 when it was Molino Elementary School. It became Molino Park Elementary in 2003 after Molino and Barrineau Park elementary schools were closed. "She was one in a million," Jackson said. "She had a great big heart for so many people." Jackson said Mrs. Smith often made the 45-minute drive from her Pensacola home on weekends to spend time with her students. "When they had activities, she would attend to support them," she said. 'She enjoyed every day' Retirement did not mean she planned to stop working with children, said another niece, Deborah Myrick Long, a seventh-grade teacher at Ferry Pass Middle School. "She enjoyed every day at her school and took pride in her work," she said. "Even in her retirement, she planned to continue to work with her school and with me at Ferry Pass." Mrs. Smith only had one biological child, but she felt all children were hers, Long said. "Children were her passion," she said. Last year, her husband of 24 years, President Smith Jr., and son, Reginald Smith, 23, died in May and October, respectively. "We know Sharon is where she wants to be because she missed her husband and son a lot," Woodward said. "She had a strong faith in God, and we know she is in heaven." Mrs. Smith was a faithful member at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, said her pastor, the Rev. Michael Johnson. She was director of the children's ministry for many years and was a deaconess and the webmaster. "She did an excellent job of running that ministry and helping the kids," he said. "She also worked with our tutorial ministry and spent much of her life working after school with our children." 'She was a rare gift' Johnson said she will be greatly missed. "She was a rare gift in terms of someone with so much love to give and was such an encouragement to so many of us," he said. Woodward said everyone at Molino Park Elementary will miss Mrs. Smith, who was the school's teacher of the year several times. "Sharon was a good friend and a loved person," she said. "We were her family, and she was our family."
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