Verna Smith

Verna Smith Verna Smith of Neodesha, KS, died Sunday, October 1, 2006, at the home of her daughter. She was 85. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006, at the First Southern Baptist Church. Pastors Floyd Smith, Delbert Callaway and Dallas Martin will officiate. Interment will be in Altoona Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home on Wednesday from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. The daughter of Jerry Ike and Clara Marie Baughn Myers, she was born March 9, 1921, at Roper, Kansas. She graduated from Guilford High School in 1939 and completed the American School Home Study Course in 1967. She married Loren Oscar Smith on December 23, 1937, in Oswego, KS. He preceded her in death February 11, 1981. Mrs. Smith was a member of the First Southern Baptist Church and served as a pastors wife, a church pianist and a Sunday school teacher for a number of years. Survivors include three sons, Floyd of Salina, KS, Michael of Wichita, KS, and Gary of Tucson, AZ; three daughters, Clara Nell Leavitt of Kimberly, ID, Lorna Beam of Neodesha, and Peggy Hawley of Yoder, CO; 18 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; and 11 great-great-grandchildren. In addition to her husband, she is preceded in death by her parents, a son, Robert Loren; a daughter, Barbara Jean; three brothers, Harold, Marion and Wayne; and three great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the First Southern Baptist Church Building Fund or Harry Hynes Hospice and may be left at the funeral home. Condolences may be expressed at www.penwellgabel.com.