Merrie Christina Lavikoff December 4, 1948 - June 4, 2024

Merrie Christina Smith Lavikoff of Manassas, age 75, passed peacefully from this life in sleep at approximately 1:00pm on Tuesday, June 4th. She was at home, attended by her husband and caregivers.  
“Chris” as she preferred to be called, was born December 4th, 1948 in Long Island, New York. Her parents Barbara Jane and Emerson James Smith lived for traveling, trading antiques, and embracing many and varied friends around the world. Barbara referred to “Merrie Chris Smith” as her early Christmas greeting. She was the oldest of four tow headed swimmers raised in Los Altos, California. Their family tragically lost one sister (Robyn, 15) to a car accident, yet their courage and openness to embrace life as it came and people as they found them colored Chris’s life and later, and her children’s lives.  

An Army Veteran, Chris had served almost 3 years as a cartographer and illustrator in the Women’s Army Core, where she drew maps and got to paint giant monster faces on tanks. Jeffrey Lavikoff, an Air Force veteran met Chris while they were neighbors at an apartment building near Fort Belvoir. Her cat Sam got out one day, ran through Jeff’s open door and under his bed. Love blossomed and they wed September 5th, 1976.  
David was born in 1979, Debra Lyn in 1982, and last, Emily Ann in 1987. Chris often told family of the struggle she went through with her youngest child being so premature, but she was a fighter and provided the most she could to keep Emily growing and thriving. One of her proudest achievements was her children. She delighted in her children’s families and their happiness was her joy.  

She attended Christ Chapel in Woodbridge from 1988 until she transferred to Mountaintop Church in its early years. As a member of each church, she joined bible study groups and participated in a variety of opportunities for the church like hand drawn portraits of the staff for a directory or clown ministry. This not only gave her family a greater sense of community but opened the doors to Chris and Jeff volunteering in feeding families in need in the Prince William County area for years, first through organizations and later, a baked goods ministry. She loved to give and even opened her home many times to families in the church. She believed in us all being God’s children and never missed a moment to get to know someone.  

Joyfully singing and even dancing, Chris was at home in worship at church. Her faith in God carried her to the end. She was comforted by music and the Bible, and prayer was a powerful part of her spiritual life. Chris drew attention in many ways but she loved her church and community, so please remember what mattered most to her: sharing God’s love in Christ’s name.

  
Chris was preceded in death by her mother (Barbara Jane Smith). She is survived by her husband, Jeffrey Lavikoff, her siblings: Steve Smith and Lisa (Barry) Moak, her three adult children: David (Angela), Debralyn (John) Dolby, and Emily (Roger) Ayers, and her five grandchildren: Sophia and Alejandro Lavikoff, Steven and Evan Dolby, and Maximilian Ayers.