Class of 2005
Smith graduated from West Limestone in 1956, excelling in basketball, football and baseball. During his senior season, Smith was selected as the MVP of Single A Basketball Tournament after guiding the Wildcats to the state title. That team compiled a record of26 wins and four losses and placed four players including Smith on the All-State Tournament Team.
During the State Tournament, Smith scored 87 points in four games. He made 35 points in the semifinals, which tied the State Single A record at that time. That game was played on a Saturday afternoon and in the finals that night, he bucketed 26 points.
West Limestone breezed through the State Single A Tournament with a first round win over Camden, 74-44; second round victory over T. R. Miller, 62-37; semi-final win over Curry, 73-45; and the championship win over Hackneyville, 69-62.
Smith also helped lead West Limestone to county championships in football and baseball that season. On the football team, he played quarterback on offense and safety on defense. He pitched and played third base on the baseball team. That same crew ofathletes, while ninth graders, won the county basketball championship and was undefeated that year. Honors in addition to MVP and All State Tournament Team included: All County Teams as a freshman (on the Junior High Team), sophomore, junior and senior; and All Eighth District Teams as a junior and senior.
He was offered a basketball scholarship to a Mississippi junior college and inquiries of interest to play at other colleges and universities including Auburn University. After high school, Smith played independent and industrial league basketball and softball in the Decatur and Athens areas, winning several honors there. Among the honors was his selection to the Decatur All Star League Basketball Team, averaging more than 20 points per game.
On Sunday, Feb. 27, 2000, Smith was named to the Athens News-Courier's Best Team Ever at West Limestone High School. He was also elected by readers of The Decatur Daily to the Best of the 50s Limestone County Basketball Team. Smith coached Dixie Youth Baseball for several years in the Owens Community. One ofhis teams, in 1982, went 22-0 and won the County League and City-County Tournament.
Smith has served as president ofthe Owens Junior High and West Limestone Booster Clubs as well as treasurer of the Owens PTA (now PTO). He has also coached some Fall-Winter League basketball at Owens.
He has been on the Board of Directors of Family Security Credit Union (formerly Chemstrand's Families Credit Union) for 37 years. He has also been president, vice president and treasurer of the organization. He is retired from Monsanto (Solutia).
Smith has also been active in his church, having been an elder in the Church of Christ since 1981. He has been married to his high school sweetheart/cheerleader, the former Shirley Gaston, for a little more than 47 years. They have three children and five grandchildren.