Gwendolyn Elliott

On August 11, 1948, Gwendolyn Smith was born to James C. Smith and Evelyn (Burston) Smith in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She departed this temporal life in preference to life eternal on the morning of March 12, 2021, after a long health battle. 

Gwen was educated through the Pittsburgh Public School system. She graduated from Schenley High School in 1967 and attended Sawyer Business School upon graduation.

Gwen worked for various employers in the Pittsburgh, California, and Washington, DC areas. She retired from her last full-time employer, Dollar Bank, where she worked as a Mortgage Loan Processor. For some years following her retirement, Gwen worked multiple part-time jobs.

In 1969 Gwen was united in Holy Wedlock to Joe Louis Hill. From this union, a daughter, Lisa Hill, was born. Gwen remarried in 1980 to Ronald Elliot who passed away in 1982. In 1986 Gwen had her second child. Christopher Walls; and in 1995 she was blessed with her third child, Jaszmin Hudson; and then her fourth child, Aylanna King in 2004. Gwen purchased a home in the Penn Hills area in 1996 where she continued to love, raise, and support her children and entertain her family and friends.

Gwen's greatest accomplishment was being a phenomenal mother and grandmother. She loved spending time with her family and friends, loved to laugh and have a good time. She was a strong, determined, and proud woman who always wore a smile. She had a spirit that made complete strangers hold her a conversation as if they were long-time friends, and she had a spirit that kept long-time friends from becoming strangers.

Gwen was baptized as a child and attended several churches throughout the Pittsburgh area, but in 2018 she rededicated her life to Christ and joined Mt. Ararat Baptist Church.

Gwen was preceded in death by her spouse, Ronald Elliot; father, James C. Smith; mother, Evelyn Singleton; daughter, Aylanna King; stepfather, Sam Singleton; brothers: Larry and Derek; and her sister, Niecy.

She leaves to mourn her memory her children: Lisa Hill, Christopher Walls and Jaszmin Hudson; siblings: Curtis, James, Rosemary, Gerald, Deborah, Amenta, Trudoane, Robert, Jim-Jim, Monica and Carol; grandchildren: Lauren Walls and Isaiah Walls; her father's former spouse, Lillian Smith; her partner George Woods; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

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