EFFINGHAM, Ill. — HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital proudly welcomed Ella Marie Smithenry as the first baby born at the hospital in 2026 to Kimberly and Dustine Smithenry of Newton.
She was born at 3:52 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, at St. Anthony’s, weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.
In celebration of being the first baby born in 2026 at St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, Ella and her family were presented with a special basket of gifts from the Women and Infants Center.
For more information about HSHS St. Anthony’s Women and Infants Center including free prenatal classes, visit St. Anthony’s web site at stanthonyshospital.org/baby.
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About HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital
HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, Effingham, celebrating 150 years of serving the Effingham community, is part of Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS), a nonprofit Catholic health care ministry founded in 1875. Dedicated to our Mission to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through high-quality Franciscan health care, HSHS clinicians provide exceptional care centered on the whole person. Based in Springfield, Illinois, HSHS employs nearly 11,000 colleagues who provide care in 13 acute-care, children’s and critical-access hospitals and home health and hospice programs in Central and Southern Illinois and Eastern Wisconsin. HSHS is aligned with more than 1,000 primary and specialty physicians and advanced practitioners through its owned affiliates HSHS Medical Group and Prairie Cardiovascular and its partnership with Prevea Health. For more information about HSHS, visit hshs.org.