Ludie (Lou) Strickland Smith Creech, 81, died Sunday at Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation in Mount Olive.

A native of Wayne County, Mrs. Creech was the daughter of the late Louis L. Strickland and Maggie Blanche Parham Strickland and was married to the late Retired Army Captain Sanford Smith and William Worth Creech. She was a retired bookkeeper of the A.A.V. Company in Jacksonville, FL with 24 ½ years of service. Mrs. Creech was past worthy Matron of Riverside Chapter #218 Order Eastern Star and a member of the Daughters of the Nile, Kim Temple #85. She was also a charter member of the Ladies Oriental Shrine Chapter 100. Mrs. Creech was a member of the First Pentecostal Holiness Church, Goldsboro.

Funeral services were held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the First Pentecostal Holiness Church with Rev. Jim Whitfield, Rev. Morris Smith and Rita Boyette officiating. Burial followed in the Four Oaks Cemetery.

Mrs. Creech is survived by her son, James L. Smith and his wife, Charli; grandchildren, Jennifer Budd and husband, Danny, William Jason Smith and wife, Cammy, Jordana Smith, Jillian Smith and Joel Smith; great-grandchildren, Heather Budd and Emily Budd; sisters, Maggie S. Floyd, Mary Ethel Reece and Doris M. Flowers; a brother, Louis Strickland, Jr. and her extended family, Bootsie and Donnie Smith, Ray and Doris Boyette, Jack and Dorothy Boyette, Heyward and Kathy Boyette, Evelyn and George Holland and Vennie Lee and Jack Moore; and special nieces and nephews, Teresa and Mike Peele, Donna and Stan Smith, Morris and Lynn Smith and Sonya and Steve Ginn.