Mary Ellen Price (Smith Sparks), a native of Montgomery and a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, died at Jackson Hospital on June 27, 2005 after a long illness.

Mrs. Sparks is survived by her husband, Col. Harold P. Sparks (ret.), her sisters, Betty Price Swift and Jean Price Lewis of Arlington, Virginia, and by her brother, James R. Price of Montgomery.

Before a long career as a civilian employee of the United States Air Force, she was a staff member for WSFA in its earliest days. Her career with the Air Force took her to Wiesbaden, Paris, California and Maxwell Field.

While in Germany she married her first husband, Lt. Col. Ira H. Smith.  Following his retirement from the Air Force, they lived in New York for several years before returning to Montgomery in the seventies.  Lt Colonel Smith died in 1991.

Mrs. Sparks served as a volunteer at the Sloan-Kettering Institute and continued to volunteer her services at the Maxwell Air Force Base hospital until her illness.

Services will be held at the Church of the Ascension on Tuesday, July 5 at 11:00. No flowers, please.  

Funeral Home: LEAK MEMORY CHAPEL
Publication Date: 06/30/2005