EVANSVILLE, Ind. — In the hours after news of Darla Smith's death was released Tuesday, friends and family remembered her as a constantly upbeat, community-engaged small business owner who, besides being a talented baker, also had a big heart.

Smith’s business, Daily’s Annex Bakery, had a loyal clientele despite its station in Jacobsville, one of Evansville’s poorest neighborhoods.

She led and supported efforts to make the area better.

Vanderburgh County Coroner Steve Lockyear ruled Smith's death a homicide after an autopsy determined she died of internal injuries from blunt force trauma after her car was struck by a reportedly impaired driver Tuesday.

Smith was out buying baking supplies.

News of Smith's death:Coroner: Business owner's death a homicide

“She was always positive,” said Joe Easley, a former Jacobsville Area Community Corp. board member. “She didn’t focus on the negative. Others would talk about the problems or whatever in Jacobsville, and she would see the opportunities.”

Smith, 72, was a staunch advocate of the $18 million renovation of North Main Street, even though she knew she and other businesses would absorb a financial hit during nearly two years of construction.

“She was an important part of our planning process on that North Main complete street,” Department of Metropolitan Development Director Kelley Coures said. “One of the misunderstandings people had about that project was that it started with the city, and we dropped it on the businesses there. It was the opposite.

“Darla Smith had a vision to redo and make North Main a destination place, bicycle friendly and something the neighborhood could develop and coalesce around,” Coures said. “She was adamant that she supported the project. She knew it would impact her profitability while the project was going on. But she said it was for the greater good.”

Dan DiLegge, owner of DiLegge’s Restaurant on North Main Street, knew Smith and worked with her many years. When Smith was president of Jacobsville’s business association, DiLegge was vice president, and vice versa.

DiLegge got to know Smith when she was a pastry chef at the old Executive Inn, years before she took over Daily’s Annex Bakery.

“She was such a presence on North Main Street and in Jacobsville,” DiLegge said. “She was always very supportive of everything we did down here. She was the matriarch of North Main Street, just a kind, generous individual with her time and talents.”

Smith made cakes for the YWCA Evansville’s annual Tribute to Achievement dinner. In fall 2017, she did a six-week cooking and baking class for youth at the Dream Center, which serves many kids in the Jacobsville neighborhood.

“She would teach them how to bake, and how to run a store — customer service, making change, sales,” said Jeremy Evans, director of the Dream Center. “At the end of the class, they were given a set of baking equipment.

“We were just getting ready to start a new class actually,” Evans added. “We talked about it a couple weeks ago.”

Smith also was generous to her fellow small business owners. DeAnn Crider Schmitt, who with her husband owns Sweet Schmitt’s Candy, has made their candy out of Smith’s bakery for the last five months.

“Darla was our mentor,” Schmitt said. “She took us in when no one else would. She supported us in our endeavor to open our shop on the corner of North Main and Virginia. She oozed love to everyone. We really connected with her because of how she ran her shop and reached out to the community. That is exactly how we were planning on running ours.”

Smith was an ordained minister who spoke openly about Christian faith.

“We spent a lot of time talking about the wonderful things God has done for us,” Schmitt said.

Smith baked countless wedding cakes, including one for Coures.

“In my job, I talk to a lot of people over a year’s time,” Coures said. “Corporate people, citizens, people in the supermarket. Not all of them become good friends. Darla became a really good friend to me. When I got married, she was more than happy to make our wedding cake for us. She took care to make sure it had everything we wanted.”

Smith was out getting baking supplies Tuesday when a vehicle driving the wrong way hit her head on.

“This was going to be a busy week for her, for Valentines’ Day,” DiLegge said. “I had a cake ordered from her for a lady coming in tomorrow, it was the lady's 90th birthday. Darla was on her way to shop for a busy week.

“She was angel,” DiLegge said.

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