Shirley Smith
Mrs. Shirley Oliver Smith of the Pleasant Shade Community died at 9:45 p.m. at the age of 81 on April 15, 2023 at the Knollwood Manor in Lafayette where she had made her home since November 25, 2006 suffering from multiple sclerosis, Mrs. Smith had been a resident at Knollwood Manor longer than any other resident.
Funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home will be conducted Wednesday morning April 19th at 11 a.m. with Eld. Dewayne Gregory officpiating. Burial will follow in the Pleasant Shade Cemetery. The Smith family will receive friends at Sanderson in Carthage on Tuesday from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. and on Wednesday after 9 a.m.
Born Shirley Sue Oliver in the Pleasant Shade Community on July 5, 1941, she was one of two children of the late Vestal Herald Oliver who died at the age 75 on May 28, 1996 and Mary Magdline Shrum Oliver who died at the age of 85 on March 29, 2007. Mrs. Smith was a member of the 1959 graduating class at Smith County High School. She majored in mathematics and commercial, was in the Beta Club her sophomore, junior and senior years, was in the Future Homemakers of America, freshman class reporter, sophomore class secretary, on the Black & Gold paper staff and office staff, and was voted by her senior classmates as the “Most Industrious” girl.
The statement made about her in the “59” senior annual was; “A living jewel dropped unstained from heaven”.
At the Mount Tabor Missionary Baptist Church on September 1, 1959, she was united in marriage to Graveltown Community native Ronald Ethridge Smith. The ceremony was officiated by the late Eld. Arnett Gregory. She was the co-owner operator of the former Harrison Jewelers in Carthage and was in partners with her aunt, the late Eliza Bell Gregory. Mrs. Smith was saved by God’s grace at the age of 11 and was a faithful member of the Pleasant Shade Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church as long as her health permitted and remained a member at her death.
Surviving in addition to her husband Ronald of over almost sixty-four years are their two children, a daughter, Beth Smith Stephens of Smithville; son, John Smith and wife Lisa of the Sycamore Valley Community; brother, Dan Oliver and wife Patricia Shoulders Oliver of the Pleasant Shade Community; four grandchildren, Leigh Ann Meeks and husband Richard of the Coleytown Community, Emilee Kay Stephens of Smithville, John William Stephens also of Smithville; two great-grandchildren, Ryder and Eli Meeks. The Smith family requests memorials to the Knollwood Manor Nurse Scholarship Fund.
