Betty M. Smithson, a homemaker and former nurse, died of a stroke Oct. 23 at Howard County General Hospital. She was 81 and lived in Columbia.

Born Betty Maunz in Buffalo, N.Y., she earned a nursing degree from the Buffalo General Hospital School of Nursing and worked at hospitals in New York state in the 1940s.

A resident of Ellicott City and Columbia for more than a decade, she had been an active member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Ellicott City, where services were held Monday.

She is survived by her husband of 56 years, John H. Smithson Sr.; a son, John H. Smithson Jr. of Houston; three daughters, Sandra G. Smithson and Jan Houvener, both of Metuchen, N.J., and Beverly Riling of Columbia; a brother, Charles Maunz of San Bernardino, Calif.; two sisters, Beverly Wolff and Marilynn Prins, both of Phoenix, Ariz.; and three grandchildren.