Martha Smith Allinder

Named after her mother, Little Martha’s nickname was apt in the end when she stood about four-feet-ten inches tall, and that was with her chin pointing straight up to the ceiling. Though she was tiny, she was a spunky southern pistol with a stubborn streak that probably helped carry her through her often challenging life. The self-described "Truth Teller" wasn’t much for keeping her opinions quiet, though she wasn’t fond of sharing her own truth of personal pain with others. Family lore held, and a familiar photo bore evidence, that she once placed third in a posture contest as a teenager, but Martha didn’t stand quite so straight by the time she was in her late 80’s; perhaps it was due in part to her refusal to let anyone else help carry her burdens. Little Martha’s passing on August 5th came just a handful of weeks before her 90th birthday.

Born in the quiet southern town of Augusta, Georgia smack dab in the middle of the 1930’s, Martha had what she described as the perfect childhood full of good friends, a stable home, and a little mischief. Little Martha was as cute as a Ladybug, though she never thought much of her looks: a personality trait that lingered until the end. She often questioned the sincerity of people who paid her compliments and couldn’t quite see herself as others did.

Born and raised in the same small town by her beloved Mama and Daddy, Martha could have continued her quiet, comfortable life into adulthood, but she chose differently. Maybe it was after a Tri-Hi-Y social club meeting at Richmond Academy when she first spotted a new boy with a thick shock of black hair and bright blue eyes. He definitely caught her attention in Geometry where he struggled little to complete the assigned problems, and she could have cared less. She swore later she never correctly completed a single equation in that class.

Not at all from the same background as Martha, Myrl lived with his single mother and three sisters. Martha and her best friend sometimes drove by his family’s trailer home on the other side of Augusta hoping to catch a glimpse of her new crush. Martha made it official when she asked Myrl to the Sadie Hawkins dance at school and planted a big kiss on his face at the end of the evening. Whether it was planned or borne out of romantic impulse, that bold move sealed her future.

Martha went to college in Atlanta at Georgia Baptist Hospital Nursing School and dated Myrl who was studying at Georgia Tech. Instead of pursuing a career in engineering or medicine, as Martha had probably written in her private penning of her life story, Myrl joined the ROTC and later the Marine Corps. He was academically brilliant and a star in Drama Tech theatrical productions and later made a heck of a fighter pilot. Within five years of their marriage, Martha had lived on both coasts of the continent in five different places and had three children. Her life as a military wife was on.

Martha and her passel of children, which eventually grew to four, followed Myrl’s duty station assignments around the country, eventually packing up and moving at least 17 times. The two had about as much in common as a birthday party and a brick wall, so home life for the family of six was neither quiet nor serene. Martha spent a lot of time alone as a head of household, as her husband fought in Vietnam and led squadrons of fighter pilots and their support staffs to faraway air stations around the world for years at a time. She liked order and predictability which didn’t always sync with raising kids and running a house. In the end, everyone survived and went to college, and Myrl came back, and they moved to Clearwater, Florida for what would be his final duty station in nearby Tampa. Martha never moved again.

Martha cherished her mother’s cut glass collection and the antiques handed down by her grandmothers. She loved sharing her family history and studied the backgrounds of some of her forebears including Sir Christopher Gadsden. She loved Charleston and once led a loosely organized tour for her children and grandchildren of cemeteries in the Holy City where she was photographed standing beside the headstones of some of the members of her family tree which included a Lt. Governor of South Carolina and a Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Martha admired perfection and tidiness and symmetry and could sometimes be spotted by her neighbors trimming her meticulously kept lawn with scissors. Her efforts were rewarded with a Yard-of-the-Month sign standing confidently in her zoysia grass on more than one occasion and at more than one of her many homes.

Martha was the keeper of the Thanksgiving dinner family recipes handed down by her beloved mother, and for years led the kitchen crew of her daughters and granddaughters stirring the unmistakable giblet gravy and mashing the boiled sweet potatoes for her soufflé. She and Myrl hosted the annual November holiday get-together at a beach house where everyone gathered for many years, leaving her five grandchildren with some of their most cherished memories together.

Little Martha’s stubbornness helped her make it to her 69th wedding anniversary which she celebrated in a rehabilitation facility in Clearwater, Florida. Her final weeks, each spent with one of her daughters who were bedside during her last days, were punctuated with laughter and conversation and discussions about faith and marriage and the personal lives of her favorite stars on HGTV and Fox News. Each of those days was a gift from the Lord to Martha and her three daughters.

Martha Smith Allinder passed away on August 5th, 2025, with her crush from that 1950's high school Sadie Hawkins dance, Myrl, and other family members nearby. In the end, Little Martha, with her admirably straight posture and a penchant for some good gossip, did write her own story. Her death leaves a hole where the tiny little woman with the charming southern accent, nicknamed Cutie by her nurses, once watered her ferns, voraciously consumed the news on the internet, and admired her fuchsia bougainvillea.

Nobody is quite certain what Myrl will do without her.

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In addition to her husband, Col. Myrl Allinder Jr., Martha is survived by her brother, Robert Gordon “Bob” Smith (Elizabeth) of Augusta, and her children Sue A. Hymel (Louis) of Augusta, Beth A. Allen (Bill) of Burns, Tennessee, Julie A. Stewart (Matt) of Marietta, Georgia, and John Allinder of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Martha was loved by her five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.