A memorial fund has been set up for the two children of Sonja G. Smith, the White Bear Lake woman who died of apparent hypothermia over the weekend while walking through a field.
Donations can be made to the Sonja Smith Family Memorial Fund at the Postal Credit Union at 2401 McKnight Road N., North St. Paul 55109. Donations will benefit the care of Smith's 8-year-old son and teenage daughter, who are now living with their grandparents.
Smith, 31, was found dead about 12:45 p.m. Sunday in a field off the 1600 block of Whitaker Street in White Bear Township. She had been at Don's Little Bar Saturday night with friends and her boyfriend, and apparently left alone sometime after 1 a.m. Sunday.
Authorities believe she was walking to her nearby apartment and cut through a field, crossed a creek and took off her coat before falling down or passing out. She succumbed to hypothermia just blocks from her apartment.
"She almost made it," said her father, Richard Smith. "I just feel terrible. I feel terrible about it."
Smith's visitation will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in St. Stephen Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, with the funeral starting at 11 a.m.
CHAO XIONG
