Ray Smith

Ray Douglas Smith, son of Claude Smith and Hattie L. Ives Smith, was born October 8, 1921 in Hallstead, Pennsylvania and died March 11, 2005 at the Perry Healthcare Center in Perry at the age of 83 years, 5 months and 3 days. Ray graduated from High School in Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy just before Pearl Harbor and served six years. Ray was called back into service during the Korean Conflict and served an additional four years. Ray was united in marriage with Laura Luella Stull on August 7, 1957. They lived in Perry for three years and then moved to Dawson. They moved to their current home in Dawson in 1962. Ray worked for the Milwaukee Railroad for 28 years as a brakeman. He had previously been a billing clerk for a lumberyard in New York. After the railroad closed in Perry, he worked for a time for Rolland Snowgren and then at the elevator in Dawson. Ray later worked as a security guard at Oscar Mayer. Ray and Laura spent many enjoyable hours trapping, hunting, fishing and camping. Many of those interests included Laura's sister Gilberta and her husband Donald. Ray had been a member of the Kinkead-Martin American Legion Post #583 in Rippey for over 50 years. Ray was preceded in death by his parents, one sister Millie Evans and three brothers: Herbert, Fred, and Wilfred. He is survived by his wife Laura; two sisters: Jeanette Whitney of Wichita, Kansas and Bertha Van Kleek of Walton, New York; sisters in-law: Colleen Hjerleid of Decorah and Gilberta Heithoff and her husband Donald of Ogden; nieces and nephews: including Sonja Stull of New Hampshire and Heidi Chapin and her husband Mark of Urbandale, Iowa; other relatives and friends.