Rose Ann McAtee Smith, 83, died on March 4, 2022 in Amarillo, Texas .
A memorial service will be held 11:00 A.M., Saturday, May 21, 2022, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in the Nave. Arrangements are by Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors, 2800 Paramount Blvd.
Rose Ann was born on June 4, 1938 in Santa Fe, New Mexico to William Edward McAtee and Rose Koury McAtee. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Except for a brief period of time, living in Dallas and Richardson Texas, she lived in Hereford from the late1950s to 1993.
Rose Ann married William Burnum Smith in 1968 in Hereford Texas. They were happily married for 53 years. Together they raised Rose Ann’s three sons by a former marriage.
Rose Ann was a member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hereford, where she served as Senior Warden and on various local church and diocesan committees. She was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons in 1988. After ordination, she served on the Commissions on Ministry and Missions, and the Executive Council of the Diocese of Northwest Texas. Her ministry also included being the first AIDS Task force Chair for the Diocese.
Rose Ann practiced nursing and was one of the first Family Nurse Practitioners in the Amarillo Area. Her career started as an LVN. She continued on and received her RN after graduating from Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing in the first LVN to RN program. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from West Texas State University (Now West Texas A & M), and a Master’s degree in Family Nursing from West Texas A & M University. In 1979, Rose Ann received Hospice training in the United Kingdom. This training included lectures from Dame Cecily Saunders and other early providers of the modern-day hospice. She did field work in the Midlands of Great Britain as well as St. Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, a suburb of London. Rose Ann’s nursing practice included caring for the medically underserved, teaching all levels of nursing practice, and even starting a migrant health clinic in Hereford through South Plains Health Providers (now Regence Health Network). Moving to Amarillo in 1993, she practiced as clinic director and healthcare provider for the Homeless at Tyler Street Resource Center (now Guyon Saunders Resource Center). Before her retirement, her hospice education led her to a part time position with Hospice Care of the Southwest.
Rose Ann received a number of awards during her 45 years of nursing practice. She received the Outstanding LVN Student Award in the LVN to RN program at Northwest Texas Hospital in 1972. Other awards included the President’s Award in 1998 and the Mentors award in 2004 from the Delta Delta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, Nursing’s National Honor Society. She was awarded Nurse Practitioner of the Year from the Panhandle Nurse Practitioner Association in 2003 and 2008. She was a charter member of the Texas Nurse Practitioner Association in 1989. Rose Ann was active as a community volunteer and served several civic boards and committees. They included, United Way of Hereford, Panhandle AIDS Support Organization and Regence Health Network. In 2001 she was elected Vice-Chairperson of the Homeless Coalition and in 2003, served as Chairperson of the Homeless Coalition. Rose Ann was also a charter member of the Hereford Chamber singers, traveling with the choir to Romania in 1979 and the World’s Fair in Australia in 1988. In 2019, she was awarded the designation of one of the 25 Panhandle Great Nurses. Before her illness and death Rose Ann was actively involved with the Randall County Master Gardeners and the Amarillo Parkinson Support Group, as well as facilitating a Parkinson Caregiver group.
She was preceded in death by her parents, a beloved son, Jon Sidney Fraser and a beloved sister, Evelyn Irene McAtee Castellano. She is survived by her spouse, two sons, William Thomas Fraser, and Michael Burns Fraser, as well as five grandchildren, four great grandchildren. A brother, James Edward McAtee of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a sister, Kathleen Eby, of Thrall, Texas, and numerous other relatives.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to a favorite charity.
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