Portrait of Sharon Smith. IMB Photo

Sharon Craig Smith, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Japan, died Aug. 7, 2026. She was 82. 

Sharon was born Jan. 6, 1944, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to the late Lee Daniel Craig Sr. and LaVerne Beasley Craig. She graduated from Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City; received the Bachelor of Arts from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; and attended Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri. 

She married Ed Smith on Aug. 6, 1965. After college, Ed and Sharon moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to attend seminary. Sharon taught sixth graders at Welbourn Elementary School in Kansas City, Kansas, while Ed began working on his Master of Divinity degree.  

While seeking missionary appointment Sharon wrote, “During that first year at Midwestern we had the privilege of knowing personally two missionary families. … It was through fellowship with these missionary families and with several of our friends who were seeking appointment by the Foreign Mission Board that we begin to feel that God was calling us to give our lives to him in overseas service.”  

In 1967, Ed was called to Wanamaker Road Baptist Chapel in Topeka, Kansas. During this time, Sharon taught eighth grade American history at Jardine Junior High and began working on her Master of Religious Education degree.  

In 1969, the International Mission Board appointed Ed and Sharon missionaries to Japan, where they served for 39 years.  

Sharon was preceded in death by her son, Andrew Smith.  

She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Ed Smith; the Smith family of Melbourne, Florida, the Herrera family of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Smith family in Tokyo, Japan. 

A funeral service was held Aug. 11 at Click Funeral Home in Lenoir City, Tennessee, with burial in Lakeview Cemetery, Lenoir City. 

Read an obituary here.