North Palm Beach grandmother, 71, gets her black belt

 Suzanne Smith says the "anybody can do anything they set their minds to."

That is the attitude that led Smith to leave a life on a Florida farm and pursue her dream of art. 20 years later, her award- winning oils and watercolors now sell for more than a thousand dollars each.

She says that she draws inspiration from all that's around her such as the serenity garden that she and her long-time boyfriend, Ron Molyneaux, created in front of their North Palm Beach home.  She also mixes her own paint colors, using red, yellow and blue.  When they are mixed together, of course, they form black.

Black, as in, the black belt in taekwondo Suzanne was testing for on Saturday at Gold's Gym in Jupiter.  At 65, she decided to put down her paint brush 3- times a week for her martial art.  That was 6- years ago.

Why?  "There is discipline, there is perseverance and there is the focus that is so important to both my painting and my martial art," says Suzanne.

On Saturday, with family and friends watching, Suzanne demonstrated what she could do.

Taekwondo 'personalizes' its standards slightly depending on infirmities and age.  So, while Suzanne's black belt instructor smashed four concrete tiles with a palm strike, Suzanne knew she wouldn't have to.  But she would have to break boards.  And she did:  one in front of her with a well-place front kick and pivoting to pulverize one behind her with a side kick.

When I told her the crowd cheered wildly, Suzanne was surprised.  "Did they?  I wasn't even aware of it. I was so focussed I wasn't aware of the crowd at all."

Suzanne Smith.  Grandmother.  Artist.  Black Belt. 71 years old.

(Boyfriend Ron trains with Suzanne and qualified for his black belt on Saturday too.  They study at Discovery Taekwondo in Palm Beach Gardens.)