JACKSONVILLE  -  Wanda Padrick Smith, 75, passed away Thursday, June 26, 2025 at Kitty Askins Hospice House. She was born Thursday, March 16, 1950 in Little Rock, AR, the oldest child of the late Willie Ray and Lois Padrick.

Moving to NC when Wanda was three, she always considered herself a true North Carolinian. She loved Jacksonville and the Old North State. A proud graduate of Jacksonville High School, class of 1968, every Friday night, you could still find her in the bleachers for Cardinal football. If not in the bleachers, she would still enjoy the games on the radio, screaming at the refs, cheering on the team. Even more entertaining were the nights that Cardinal football overlapped with Carolina Hurricanes hockey. With football on the radio and and her beloved Canes on the TV, she was never more in her element.

Wanda loved to cook and she was great at it. She believed in feeding people if they were hungry. Her belief was having enough food on her table, meant she had food to share. This passion and belief was something she passed on her daughter. Wanda also turned that love for cooking into a career, having worked as a cook in military chow halls in the Jacksonville area. She retired from the mess hall on Camp Johnson in 2016.

Wanda is survived by her daughter, Jackie and son-in-law, Michael Miller; brother, Philip Padrick; sisters, Cindy Bell and Judy Lewis, all of Jacksonville. She also leaves behind two nieces, two nephews, three great-nieces, and one great-nephew.

Along with her parents, Willie Ray and Lois Padrick, Wanda was preceded in death by her grandson, David Ray Miller.

The family would like to express their thanks to the wonderful oncology team at UNC Chapel Hill cancer Hospital, hospice nurses from 3HC Hospice Care, and the staff at Kitty Askins Hospice Facility in Goldsboro, NC. There is also a very big thank you to Mary Bundle at JCMC, in Richlands, NC.

The family is having a visitation at Jones Funeral Home, Jacksonville Chapel, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. To shine a light on Wanda, her daughter is asking everyone to wear your favorite sports shirts, in particular if you have anything to represent Onslow County high schools, UNC, the Carolina Panthers, and definitely the Carolina Hurricanes. The color red, which was her favorite, would also be welcome.