Horace Barton Smith

Horace Barton Smith was born on Saturday, February 10, 1934 in Bay, Arkansas. Horace grew up in a large, Southern family with parents, Robert and Joan (Stanley) Smith, brothers J.B., Von, Jack, Gary and sister Ola Mae. Horace married his high school sweetheart, Joan Touchstone, who he loved until the day he died, August 9, 2018. He & Joan were blessed with 62 years of marriage!

A strong & talented athlete, Horace excelled on the basketball court and was a leader among his Bay Yellowjackets high school team. Horace loved all sports, including cheering on his home-state Arkansas Razorbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Horace was also a well known and highly respected high school basketball referee in both Illinois and Kentucky. He also umpired baseball for high school and little league, but his heart was for basketball.

After graduating from high school, Horace served in the United States Army at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, then military relocation with his new bride to Monterey, California and Baltimore, Maryland. Following his years of military service, Horace and Joan settled in Illinois, first in Rockford, then Chicago to start their family. They raised their two sons, Mark Allen and Gregory Terrance, in Libertyville, Illinois, just north of Chicago, in Lake County.

Instilled with a strong work ethic, Horace provided well for his family. He operated a Clark Oil® service station in Chicago, and then became the owner of the new Clark station in Libertyville, which is still standing today as a Shell Oil® station. After a couple of years, he sold the station and went to work for the next 18 years for the Frank G. Hough company building the new Payloader® tractor and was part of the team that built the largest rubber-tired front end loader in the world. His experience and vast knowledge equipped him to then work as a Service Representative with International Harvester® following their acquisition of Hough. He was then employed by the FMC Link Belt Crane Company as a service rep where he traveled the globe helping companies manage their equipment. In 1982, his work with IH lead him to a job with the Warrior Coal Mine in Madisonville, KY. Following his retirement from Warrior, he then worked in Madisonville for the State of Kentucky, at the Shelter Workshop, where he worked with adults with intellectual disabilities in a manufacturing environment. In 2001 following Joan’s retirement from teaching, they both fully retired to a cozy house on the water in Lebanon, TN, where Horace’s love for fishing could be more fully enjoyed.

It's been said that Horace “never met a stranger”. He put his love for God & people to task, serving as both deacon and elder in multiple churches of Christ through the years. Horace loved big, cared deeply, and shined bright with the love of Jesus. He instilled these traits in his sons who went on to lead their own families well ... Mark with Ruthann (Hudson) and Greg with Debbie (Baker). Horace especially took pride in each of his five grandchildren: Dawson, Matthew, David, Michael, and Kristin. He enjoyed spoiling & teasing them, and he loved them really well. Horace most definitely would have enjoyed loving on his ever growing lot of great-grandchildren: Kane, Kyle, Harvey, Riley, Ridge, Emmie, Addie, and Dansby. There's no doubt that he's watching over the whole crew, and bragging about each & every one of them to all of his heavenly friends.

Horace's family and friends mourned his passing and celebrated his life on Sunday, August 12, 2018, in the Partlow Chapel in Lebanon, Tennessee. He was laid to rest on Tuesday, August 14, 2018, in Jonesboro, Arkansas at the Jonesboro Memorial Gardens.

"Well done, good and faithful servant. … Enter into the joy of your master." (Matthew 25:21)

Horace's obituary can be found at https://www.partlowchapel.com/obituaries/horace-smith-2018