Anne Hebert Smith

Anne Hebert Smith1933-2024Age 91 Silver Spring, MarylandAnne Hebert Smith died on November 11, 2024 passing peacefully at the age of 91.

Born in 1933 in New Orleans, LA, Anne was the eldest of three children of Catherine Fraser Hebert and John Ambroise Hebert. She attended Rhodes College in Memphis before graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina.

Anne's work in the field of improvisational dance spanned over fifty yeaShe found her work was extremely rewarding, allowing people to dance together led by the rhythms of the music and spontaneous interactions with one another.

Anne’s numerous visits as a guest movement teacher at her children’s schools gave her the reputation as one of the school’s “most fun” moms. She never went anywhere without her boom box and purple tie-dyed parachute enabling her to bring improvisational play to any situation at a moment’s notice.

Her work took on various forms throughout her career. She broke convention in the early 60’s, performing liturgical dance in the Presbyterian church of Chapel Hill, NC where her first husband, the late Harry E Smitwas the campus minister. For many years she taught improvisational dance and no two classes were ever the same.

In 1979 she received a masters degree in Dance therapy from Goddard College in Vermont. She worked for 10 years in hospital psychiatric units leading group and individual dance therapy sessions and later as a psychotherapist in private practice in New Haven, CT. 

At the age of 65, Anne’s love of story telling translated into a new form of self expression as she took up creative writing. In 2005 her family and close friends received copies of a self-published collection of her writings entitled Anne’s Voice. Those close to her delighted in her reflections anher personal experience of well documented family events.          Anne’s guiding inner-voice led her to courageous choices throughout her life. In the late fifties when general anesthesia was still the most commochoice in childbirth, Anne trained with a hypnotherapist in order to deliver all three of her children without the use of sedation or anesthesia. During the Civil Rights Movement, she led a successful door to door campaign in Chapel Hill, NC leading to the election of Howard Lee, the first AfricaAmerican to be elected mayor of any majority-white city in the South.In the 1980’s, when misconceptions about AIDS created a shortage of therapists willing to work with AIDS patients, Anne volunteered as a therapist for the Aids Project in New Haven, CT.

She also volunteered for many years with Montgomery Hospice, visiting with patients in their last stage of life.

Anne is survived by her sister Catherine Hebert Wells, and her three adult children from her first marriage: Leslie F. Smith (Steve Estrada) of SilveSpring Maryland, Malcolm S Smith of Kapaa, Kauai, and Laurie MacGillivray (Janet McCraw) of Memphis, TN. She is also survived by her three stepdaughters: Nancy Dittes, Carolyn Dittes and Joanne Dittes Yepsen. Anne was devoted to her grandchildren: Carmen and Annie Smith-Estrada, Emma, Laura, and Cole Yepsen, Jake and Ian Dittes, and Kyle and Devin McNamara.

Memorial contributions may be made to Montgomery Hospice