11/19/2025
Today there was a special reunion of 3 siblings of Donald Smith, all great grand nieces of Lonnie Littlejohn, designer and builder of our museum’s Littlejohn house from Shanks.
Sherry Matthews, Susan Hodges and Nancy Norman, who all met at the Methodist Church in Wortham.
At a recent FCHC meeting, a program was presented by Mary Jane McReynolds on the Methodist Church in Wortham, It was discovered that a mural has hung on their church wall painted in 1951 by prodigy, Donald Smith, who painted this mural at age 16.
FCHM Curator Patricia Pratt and board president, Linda Mullen put 2 + 2 together and recognized the name as being the sibling that had painted portraits which also hung in the Littlejohn house.
It was a great surprise when the family members were contacted and learned about a newly discovered artwork by their deceased brother Donald were located in Freestone County. Jacquelin Collins arranged this special meeting.
Here is the newspaper article about it.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1111299/
