CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Madeline Clara Young Smith, 102, of Chapel Hill, N.C., died Sunday, Oct. 24.

She was born in Lewiston, Feb. 21, 1908, to Charles and Maude Young. She graduated from Jordan High School in 1927, and from the Central Maine General Hospital School of Nursing in 1930. Her registered nursing work was primarily in private-duty nursing, caring for patients referred to her by doctors.

On July 4, 1941, she married Harold Hamilton Smith of Mount Vernon, N.Y., and lived in Mount Vernon and New Milford, N.J., where her two children, Ann and Richard were born.

She was predeceased by her husband in 1952, and returned to her native Maine (Lewiston) in 1957. In 1983, she moved to Elkland, Pa., and then to Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1997 to be near her son, Richard, daughter-in-law, Patricia and grandchildren, Maryah, Ian and Brianna.

She was one of the first residents of the then newly-built Senior Citizens’ Apartments, Covenant Place, where she spent some of the happier years of her life. Fiercely independent, she lived on her own with the help of her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, until Mayof this year.

Madeline was an accomplished knitter and shared her talents with others by knitting blankets for new moms of the Caswell County Health Department maternity program, where her daughter-in-law is employed.

Madeline was a member of the Catholic community of St. Thomas More in Chapel Hill and looked forward to Sunday visits from the pastoral ministry of the church. She very much enjoyed shopping trips with her daughter and son-in-law, Roger Jay, sharing time, conversation, coffee and desserts with friends, and especially treasured holiday meals with her family.

Aside from her immediate family she is survived by her nieces, Elaine Burke Silvia of Parsonsfield and Judith Steinetz of Chilcoot, Calif.; a nephew, Robert Wike of Portland; and grandnieces, Debra Steinetz Denton of Lakewood, Calif., and Teanne Steinetz of Connecticut.