Mary Alice Smothers, mother of Syracuse’s Near West Side, dies at 67
Updated Dec 12, 2020;
Posted Dec 12, 2020
Mary Alice Smothers, left, and close friend Marilyn Higgins, share a laugh in this undated photo. Smothers, 67, a tireless advocate of the Near West Side, died Sunday, according to friends.
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Mary Alice Smothers died Sunday, leaving the Near West Side without a champion who always saw the neighborhood differently from most.
Where others saw a low-income neighborhood full of problems, she saw a diverse and tight-knit community with limitless potential. She spent several decades helping others see that, too, according to those who worked with her for more than a decade and, as a result, came to love her as a mother or friend.