A funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Elgin Cemetery. The Rev. Jerry Ragsdale of the Elgin Church of the Nazarene will officiate. Friends may call until 8 p.m. today at Daniels Valley Funeral Chapel, 1502 Seventh St., La Grande.
Mr. Smith was born on Jan. 1, 1913, to Ralph Benjamin and Alice Myrtle (Ayars) Smith at the family home on Pumpkin ridge near Summerville.
On August 21, 1940, he married Ethel Cross in Walla Walla, Wash. In November 1942, he enlisted in the Army and served in the Trailblazer Division in Germany during World War II.
Mr. Smith was one of the last loggers in the Elgin area to use a crosscut saw. He served as a weather observer for the U. S. Weather Bureau recording the weather patterns in the Elgin area for over 20 years.
He was a heavy equipment operator, maintaining many miles of county roads until an injury forced his early retirement after some 20 years of service to Union County.
Mr. Smith was a member of the Elgin Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; the La Grande American Legion Post and was a former Boy Scout leader. He also served on the Elgin Volunteer Fire Department for several years.
He loved his family very much and was a good husband, father and grandfather. He also loved the mountains and was well-educated about mushrooms, which he enjoyed picking. He never tired of seeing all of the wildlife in the surrounding mountain. He was an avid gardener.
Survivors include his wife Ethel Smith of Elgin; sons William “Bill” Smith of Korea and Arley Smith of Portland; daughter Roselyn Smith of Coral Gables, Fla.; grandchildren Michel, Jim, Amber, Randy, J.W., Terry and Jennifer; great-grandson Jacob; sister Laura Haefer of Island City; two nieces; two nephews; and other relatives and friends.
Sister Ruth Smith and grandson Jeffrey Troy Smith died earlier.
Memorial contributions may be made to a favorite charity in care of Daniels Valley Funeral Chapel.
The Observer Newspaper La Grande, Oregon
Wednesday September 29, 1993
Contributed by: Jan S. Gillespie