Julia Kennedy Smith Reid, 78, of Pensacola passed away Tuesday, November 5, 2013. Julia was the "Best Hug in the Family." When she enveloped you in her arms, you knew that she loved you. Her family she praised and her family she served during her long life. Somewhat like her older sister Jennie, Julia's heart always found room for children and grandchildren beyond her Jean and Robert. Julia Kennedy Smith Reid was born in York, South Carolina, the fourth child of Rev. Nat Erskine Smith and Jean Kennedy Smith on May 29, 1935. Her father died in 1937. With her two brothers and sister, she grew up in York where she attended the York schools. Julia was a voice and music major at Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina. Due West was the home of her mother, her grandmother, her uncle, two aunts, and cousins. Julia enjoyed college and her summer jobs at the Balsams in New Hampshire and the Poconos in Pennsylvania. After graduation from Erskine in 1957, she began her career in Public School music. Her love of travel and music led her to positions in schools in Maryland, Denver, York, and Greenville, South Carolina. She was a good student and attended with enthusiasm two summer courses in the Midwest, one in geography and one in mathematics. Julia also loved in-laws and her nieces and nephews. In 1967, Julia and Robert Reid were married. Her marriage opened a new chapter in her life around South Alabama and Pensacola. The service and advice so lavishly bestowed by the school teacher on her Smith children in the Carolinas and Illinois now fell on Jean and Robert on the Gulf. Choral and church music inspired special energy from Julia. She sought out the best in composition and choral directors that she could latch on to for her choirs. She accepted the sacrifice of practice for beauty of performance, and her practical side extended to fund-raising to replace faded robes and tattered old songbooks. Julia grew up in a family of good cooks, and food was a major topic of her life. Her interest in music and food enriched her membership and service at her church, the First Methodist. Dinner for twelve is a major challenge for most of us. Julia welcomed the challenge of planning, buying, and cooking for hundreds. The Reid membership at First Methodist was vital. Julia took great pride in setting the table for First Methodist. This Thanksgiving, her large extended family will celebrate Thanksgiving on tables graced by the 45 beautiful napkins and table runner that she cross-stitched in 2003, and when Santa fills stockings this Christmas, he will deposit goodies in the dozens of beautiful stockings knitted by Julia over a fifty year span. Her Merry Christmas wish will ring out from those stockings for decades into the future for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews, and many others whom she loved. Julia devoted many hours to her special calendar trying to keep up with her many nieces, nephews, and other relatives and their birthdays. She shared her calendar and her congratulations and her apologies for her broken memory. Later in her life, Julia enjoyed a professional, part-time position as a personal assistant to an investment broker with Met Life. The strangers she met were extended her friendship. Julia is survived by her husband Robert Slocumb Reid of Pensacola, daughter Jean Kennedy Reid Carter of Pensacola and Jean's two children Brittany Morgan Arment and James "Jaime" Robert Reid-Carter and great grandchild Brooklyn Christiana Sykes, Julia's son Robert Maxwell Reid of New Orleans, his daughter Nyah Maria Reid of Washington, D.C., Robert's partner Heather Sutton and her two children Carley and Collin Sutton. Also surviving are her brother, Seiden Kennedy Smith, and wife, Dorothy Gasque Smith, and sister-in-law Marguerite Desaulniers Smith, and in-laws, Jean and Ed Helton of Milton, Florida, and Betty and Joel Bostic of Stockton, Alabama. She was predeceased by her brother Nat Erskine Smith, Jr., sister Jennie Anderson Smith Leath, and brother-in-law Thomas Edward Leath, Jr. A Memorial Service was held at Noon on Friday, November 8, 2013 at First United Methodist Church, with Rev. Ken Autrey officiating. The family suggests that a fitting memorial to Julia would be to the Music Committee, First United Methodist Church, 6 East Wright Street, Pensacola, FL 32501.