Rosanne Smith Kearns

After a brave battle with ALS, Rosanne Smith Kearns died peacefully in her sleep on March 30, 2024, the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, which was fitting for a woman of great faith in God and her lord and savior, Jesus Christ. 

Born on February 17, 1941, Rosanne was the daughter of George William Coale and Rosemary Studarus Coale. Her paternal grandparents moved to Sacramento after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and her maternal grandparents came from the Dyer and Studarus pioneer families.

Rosanne grew up in East Sacramento and graduated from Sacramento High School and then from Sacramento State University with a teaching credential. 

She met Gerald “Jerry” Sheffield Smith while they both worked at the College-Hi Shop on K Street in Sacramento and they married on June 24, 1962. She taught school in the East Bay until Jerry graduated from UC Berkeley and then they moved back to Sacramento where she taught school at Washington Elementary School. 

She was the proud mother of Scott Gerald Smith (wife April Smith) and Todd Wiliam Smith (wife Lisa Smith) and even prouder grandmother Ethan Scott Smith, Ryder William Smith, Ashlyn Rose Smith, and Nolan George Smith. 

After Rosanne retired from teaching, her leadership qualities surfaced as she started the Greenhaven Preschool Mothers Club, chaired the Christian Women's Club of South Sacramento, and became a coordinator of Friendship Bible Coffee study groups. She moved from Greenhaven to Serrano Country Club in El Dorado Hills in 2001 where she guided bible studies until just a few months before her death. She was the first captain of the Serrano Women’s Golf Group. 

Her husband, Jerry, was Director of Development at Serrano and worked with Robert Trent Jones Jr. on the Serrano golf course. Jerry became disabled by strokes in 1995 and 2007 and Rosanne was his steadfast advocate and caregiver until his death in 2010.

In 2013, Rosanne met former Sacramento Police Chief John “Jack” Kearns and they married and had eight happy years together golfing and traveling until Jack’s death in 2021. 

Rosanne was a diehard San Francisco 49ers football and Sacramento Kings basketball fan. She loved music, especially anything from Neil Diamond or Elvis. She loved to dance.

She will be remembered mostly by her love of family and friends and her unwavering faith and love for God and Jesus Christ.