O Eugene Smith

Gene Smith, 97, of Newton, died Saturday (May 29, 2010) at Kansas Christian Home in Newton. O. Eugene Smith was born on Nov. 27, 1912, (Thanksgiving Day) in Craig, Mo., the son of Oscar W. and Magdalena Catherine Vedder Smith.
He said he interrupted Thanksgiving dinner, and he was given and kept the roaster the turkey was baking in when he arrived.

His mother died on Christmas Day, 1914, in Newton, when Gene was 2 years old. After her death, Gene lived with aunts, uncles and his grandparents in Oklahoma and Kansas for several years. When he was 9, his stepmother’s sister and her husband (Babe and George Richley of Wichita) who had no children, asked if Gene could live with them. They became his foster parents until their deaths long after he was married and had his own children and grandchildren.
Gene’s foster dad was in the printing business. After Gene’s sophomore year in a Wichita high school, he left school and entered the printing business alongside George Richley. He left the printing business for a few years during the Depression and drove a hay truck to western Kansas for a Sedgwick farmer.

It was then that he met a Sedgwick girl named Maxine Harper. They were married on Aug. 8, 1935. He returned to the printing business as a pressman and worked at McCormick-Armstrong Printing in Wichita for 43 years.
After retirement from McCormick-Armstrong, he continued working at The Wichita Eagle-Beacon, printing the Sunday edition on Saturday nights, until he was 77 years old.
Both of Gene’s sons followed him into the printing business.

When Gene retired from his part-time work at the Eagle, he started spending time with his long-time friend Harold “Jake” Jacobson at Jacobson’s antique store, Poor Kate’s. He and Jake had fun finding and repairing antiques for sale. While working at Poor Kate’s, he built a charcoal-fired cooker large enough to roast two whole hogs. His daughter and late son-in-law, Elizabeth and Jim Reber, used the cooker for an annual pig roast at their farm west of Newton. Gene commuted to work in Wichita first from Sedgwick and then Newton.

At home in Sedgwick, he had a large vegetable garden, the produce from which Maxine and the family canned. In Newton, he continued to maintain his house and yard and work in his shop well into his 90s. He had many hobbies. Gene and Maxine spent several years on the Salvation Army board of directors. He enjoyed his Model T and Model A automobiles. He was an avid sportsman throughout his life, hunting, fishing, golfing, playing pool and bowling. He even tried his hand at wine-making. Gene Smith was a jack-of-all-trades. He was always ready, willing and able to fix things for his family. When his kids or grandkids broke something or had something that wouldn’t work, they turned to “gramps” to fix it. Whether it was woodworking, welding, automotive repair, plumbing or electrical, Gene successfully tackled it. He was an early recycler, taking discarded implement parts and broken garden tools, designing, creating and welding them into his “gooney” bird, flamingo and sunflower yard art.

In retirement, Gene and Maxine joined friends for morning coffee at Kmart, McDonald’s and Burger King. Even after Maxine’s death and until about a year ago, Gene and his daughter Elizabeth regularly joined his friends for coffee at Burger King. For many years, Gene and Maxine met with another group of friends at Newton’s Coffee Pot Restaurant, until it closed, to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions.

He was a longtime member of First United Methodist Church in Newton, becoming a member of Newton’ s First Christian Church in the late 1990s. He was a member of the Newton Masonic Lodge No. 142 and a loyal member of the Harvey County Shrine Club. He received his 25-year Shriner pin from the Midian Shrine just days before his death.

O. Eugene Smith is survived by his daughter, Elizabeth A. Reber of Newton; his son George Smith of Dallas; 10 grandchildren; several great-grandchildren; nieces; nephews; and great-nieces and great-nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of 73 years, L. Maxine Harper Smith; his youngest son, Orville of Warsaw, Mo.; and brother J. O. Smith of St. Joseph, Mo.

Funeral services will be at 3 p.m. today at First Christian Church in Newton. Interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery in Newton. Memorials have been established with the Midian Shrine Plane of Mercy and First Christian Church. Contributions may be sent to Broadway Colonial Funeral Home, 120 E. Broadway, Newton, KS 67114.