Cecil Smith

Memorials may be made to Charette Baptist Church Building Fund, Marthasville, Missouri. Cecil Melvin Smith was born on January 19, in 1919 in South Central Missouri. His family and those in his hometown called him "Melvin". His parents were Jessie (Trowbridge) and Jeffery Smith. Cecil was the second oldest of twelve children. One sibling died in childbirth and one died as a young child. Cecil recently lost his brothers Victor and "Monk". His youngest brother, Kenny, is younger than Cecil's son. The rest of his siblings are girls. Most of the family has musical talent. Cecil attended school at Hutton Valley, MO, a small community near Mountain View. He attended school until he was about twelve years old, at which time he quit to help support the family. He helped his father at the sawmill as well as farm work at home. He also took some trips to such places as Idaho to help harvest potatoes and other farm work. Evidently some of those trips were quite adventurous because there was always little money and poor transportation means. He married Marie Ogle of Mountain View in October of 1940. They kept their marriage a secret until January of 1941. Their first child, Donald Lee, was born on November 14, 1941. Cecil served in the Navy at Okinawa during World War II. He seldom talked of his days in the service. Even after he was married and had children, he took some trips out west doing whatever work he would find. He helped build Wind River Canyon Dam near Riverton, Wyoming. Until recently he still had fond memories of a trip that the family took to see the Teton Mountains. Their daughteer, Linda Faye, was born on April 7, 1948. He returned to Mountain View and built a home in the country. He and his father owned a sawmill in Mountain View and supplied the flooring mill across the road with lumber. During the fifties, he moved his family to St. Louis and drove a bread delivery truck until he could find a job as a carpenter. After he worked as a carpenter for a while, he was able to move his family to Harvester, Missouri during the sixties. Before moving to the property from St. Louis, he and his son built a home on Harvester Road. After they moved to Harvester, he started a sawmill on Highway 94. During the seventies, he and his son moved the sawmill they ran together to Highway M south of Wright City, MO. He continued saw milling until 1992. He was not ready to retire yet, so he helped his son build log homes until well past his eightieth birthday. His wife died in 1999. They had been married nearly 59 years. He remained in his home at Harvester until the fall of 2002 when he moved to an apartment in Marthasville so he could be near his son and daughter and their families. He joined Charrette Baptist Church at Marthasville where both his son and daughter are members. No matter how much difficulty he had with his memory, he could always remember the words to the old hymns that he had been singing all his life. He played the guitar until a few years ago and could still play the harmonica on occasion. In 2005, he moved into an apartment on the lower level of his son's log home in rural Marthasville. He was diagnosed with moderate Alzheimer's disease within a month or so after that move. He lived with his son and family until he moved to New Haven Care Center on October 13, 2008. His daughter, Linda, has two sons and one grandson. His son, Don, has five children and nine grandchildren with another on the way in 2009. Cecil was always been proud of the fact that five of his seven grandchildren are adopted.