Feb. 10, 1924-Dec. 13, 2017
Visitation: 6-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, at Bland-Brumback Funeral Home, Stockton. Service: 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, Stockton Assembly of God Church. Burial: Gum Springs Cemetery.
Mrs. Smith, 93, Stockton, died Wednesday, Dec. 13. She was born the third of five children to the Parker Hamby and Edan Neal family of Jerico Springs, where she lived the first three years of her life.
The family moved to northwest Missouri to work the corn fields of Atchison County, around Tarkio. She was a child of the Depression and, at the age of 12, she began working on several of the Rankin ranches as a cook’s helper and dishwasher.
She was a learner and student of life. At the age of 4, she tagged along to the country school after her two older brothers, and refused to stay home. She attended Centerview Country School, then Tarkio High School and finally graduated from Westboro High School in 1941.
She asked for Jesus to come into her heart at the knee of her Sunday school teacher at the age of 5 at the Baptist church in Tarkio. She remained a believer for 93 plus years. She married Melvin Smith, the son of Ira and Anna (Fox) Smith, on his 27th birthday. Three children — Polly Ann, Robert Melvin and Rebecca Marie — were born of the union.
She was a life-long member, worker, teacher and pianist of Assembly of God churches.
Survivors include three children, Polly Ann Carrell and husband Jack of Stockton and Moody, the Rev. Robert M. Smith and wife Ramona of Thomasville, Georgia, and Rebecca Marie Middleton and husband the Rev. Loyd N. of Halfway; five grandchildren; eight great-great-grandchildren; a brother, J.B. “Bud” Hamby of Springfield; and a host of nieces, nephews and other relatives.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Melvin Smith; a son-in-law, James Dean Shipley; a grandson, Melvin Lee “Rusty” Shipley; two brothers, Denzil P. Hamby and the Rev. Fred Hamby; a sister, Wilma Deane Campbell.
Online condolences can be made at www.brumbackfuneralhome.com.
