Jackson W. Smith

Requiem Mass for Jackson W. Smith, a resident of St. John, Wash., will be Thursday, Feb. 26 at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, in Colfax, with Father Felix Lorge as celebrant. Entombment will follow at 2:30 p.m. at Holy Family Mausoleum in Spokane. Recitation of the Rosary will be Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 5:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in St. John.

Smith passed away at the Whitman Health and Rehabilitation Center in Colfax, Monday at the age of 79, of causes related to age.

He was born Sept. 23, 1918 at Portland, Ore., son of Edgar W. and Irene Simington Smith. He was raised in Portland and graduated from Grant High School in 1935. Jackson then received his degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1940. He and Doris Read were married at Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 7, 1940. They moved to San Francisco where they lived and worked until Jackson enlisted into the U.S. Army Air Corps. During World War Ii he was stationed in Italy and from there flew B-17s over Europe. He flew between 35 and 45 sorties before being discharged. Following his discharge the family moved to Portland, Ore., where they lived and worked until coming to the farm, in the St. John area, in 1948. They left the farm in 1975 and moved into St. John where the family home has been since.

Jackson was a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church and served on the church council for more than 30 years. He was also a member of the St. John Golf Club, the Spokane Club and a 50-year member of the Winona Grange. Jackson also belonged to the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, had served on the St. John School Board for 17 years and was the Palouse-Rock Lake Conservation District farmer of the year in 1963 and in 1953 shot his hole in one.

Surviving is his wife Doris at the family home in St. John; seven children, Cindy Klaveano of Pomeroy, Wash., Linda Blackman, of Salem, Ore., Read Smith of St. John, Wash., Judy Angus of Huntsville, Al.; Wendy Gunnels of Spokane; Heidi Danaher of Colfax and Melissa Hodgson of Boston; one brother, Edgar L. Smith of Spokane; and 16 grandchildren.

The family suggests memorial be gifts to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in St. John or the Whitman Health and Rehabilitation Center in Colfax.

The Bruning Funeral Home in Colfax is in charge of arrangement.