‘Who Loves You Baby?’ Long-Time Buckingham Elementary Fixture Terry Smith Reflects On Final Days At School

BERLIN – Terry Smith was hurrying into the gym at Stephen Decatur High School when, above the sounds of the crowd gathered for a basketball game, she heard a phrase that stopped her in her tracks.

“Who loves you baby?” called a voice from the top of the stands.

It’s a sentence Smith knows well, as it’s her self-proclaimed catch phrase. The assistant principal from Buckingham Elementary School utters it daily in her interactions with children.

“I looked up and it was one of my students I had in 1994,” Smith said with a laugh.

Of course, it’s not uncommon for Smith to get stopped by students during her everyday travels. Her smartphone is proof of it, filled with hundreds of photos of the outgoing educator and her adoring former and current students. Several of the latter cried this month when Smith told the Buckingham community she was retiring.

She says the decision, a difficult one, means she will have more time to spend with her family. She does not, however, intend to stop working on behalf of area children.

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