Obit – Mrs. Alline Proffitt Smith
A Lock Seven Community homemaker, Mrs. Alline Proffitt Smith age 92, transitioned from her earthly journey to her heavenly walk to be reunited with her family on Saturday Morning June 29, 2024 with her extended family of nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews surrounding her bed. She was pronounced deceased at 9:30 a.m. by Alive Hospice of Nashville at the Lebanon Center for Rehabilitation and Healing, where she had resided following a stroke. She was admitted there June 18th.
Funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home were conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday morning July 3rd with Sister Gladys Bane Hart of Hermitage officiating. Burial followed beside her husband and daughter in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
She was one of five children, and was the last surviving of three daughters and two sons, and was born Johnnie Alline Proffitt in Paynes Bend in the Lock Seven Community and was the daughter of well-known and highly respected Pentecostal Pastor, the late Eld. Johnny Alexander Proffitt who died at the age of 100 on August 12, 2005 and Fannie Myrtle Christian Proffitt who died at the age of 82 on April 24, 1986.
Siblings preceding her in death was a foster brother, reared by her parents, James “Smokey” Sanders who died September 1, 2019 at the age of 86 and a brother, Robert Proffitt who died October 8, 2011 at the age of 73 and two sisters, Ardelia Proffitt who died at the age of 18 months and Marie Proffitt Hensley who died September 26, 2001 at the age of 72.
Mrs. Smith was a 1951 graduate of Smith County High School where it was stated of her in her senior annual “Whatever anyone does or says, I must be good.”
At the Wilson County Courthouse on September 1, 1951, she was united in marriage by then County Judge Turner Evans, to Buffalo Valley Community native, William Morgan “Bud” Smith. He preceded her in death on June 24, 2010 at the age of 80.
For many years Mr. and Mrs. Smith owned and operated the S & D Wholesale Battery Company and she also was employed at the Carthage Shirt Corporation for over twenty years and for six years before her retirement she was employed with the Helping Hands program through the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency.
Following the loss of her husband of almost fifty nine years in 2010, she again had to deal with the loss of their only child, Teresa Gayle Smith, who was blind and who died on October 20, 2013 at the age of 57.
With a strong faith and much love from her family and friends, she continued with her life and being a daughter of a preacher, she was very much involved with the former Harbor of Love Church in Lebanon which her Father and Sister Marie pastored for many years.
After the loss of her husband, daughter, and brother, Robert, Robert’s wife, Paula Proffitt was what many would consider Alline’s sidekick. They rarely went anywhere unless as a pair and had a friendship like sisters.
She is survived by a sisters-in-law, Martha Sanders of the Hogans Creek Community; and many nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews, who stayed with her until the end.
At Mrs. Smith’s request and because of her daughter’s blindness, the request was made for memorials to be made to the Lions Club Sight Service.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
