Patricia "Trish" Lynn (Smith) Hill

Fierce. Trish was fierce. Be it as a supporter or adversary, Trish lived fiercely.

Fiercely independent. Fiercely opinionated. Fiercely her own woman.

Patricia Lynn Maples Hill (nee Smith) was born December 12, 1961, at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, Hollywood, California, to Constance and Byron Smith (Connie & Smitty) on an afternoon that was neither dark nor stormy. The Christmas tree had been decorated just days before. The crib awaited with yellow blankets.

As her parents had vagabond hearts, she grew up in Southern California, New Haven, Connecticut, Central Florida, and parts in between.

Trish was a brilliant and vibrant artist, working in acrylics, water colors, sketches and collage in a wide range of subjects, most notably Sci/Fi and Anime. She once painted a six-foot canvas of the Starship Enterprise journeying through space, and ten years later, gave her husband, Bill an exact 2 inch by 3 inch replica of the same painting.

She was a fantastic cook – family members and loved ones came from miles around when they got word that she was making her famous lasagna…it’s all in the homemade sauce…the recipe is a family heirloom.

Beloved wife, mother, sister, mother-figure and inspiration to a score of young people, illuminating darkness with her energy and caring, she was always the first to reach out a helping hand. Trish was the one running toward the crisis, rather than away from it.

Known for her piercing wit and sharp intellect, Trish was an avid reader, especially fond of writers of Science Fiction like Isaac Asimov & Robert Heinlein. Her finely-honed researching skills were robust: she was able to get to the bones of whatever subject she tackled. A believer that God is in the details, she applied that principle to all she undertook, from creating memory books, to drying herbs to inventing believable and functional costumes for a post-apocalyptic short film.

A member of the Poplar Bluff community for over a decade, Trish is survived by her cherished husband Bill Hill, elder son Steven Maples and his wife, Jennifer, younger son Darryl, six adored grandchildren, assorted nieces, nephews, and cousins, big sisters Catherine Stahl, elizabeth iannaci, and Leslie Dryer (who she always called Rosie), and an aggregation of young people Trish kept in her heart and sometimes home. All who knew her will continue to carry a spark of her spirit with them.

One of her favorite quotes was from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence

To see a World in a Grain of Sand. And a Heaven in a Wild Flower. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand. And Eternity in an hour.