Obit – Mr. Raymond Allen Smith
Mr. Raymond Allen Smith of the Four-Way-Inn Community died at 7:12 a.m. Monday morning, September 15, 2025 at the Riverview Regional E.R. after becoming ill at his Raymond Allen Lane home. He was 81.
Funeral services were conducted on Thursday afternoon September 18th from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home with Eld. Jeff Patterson and Eld. Kenny Hensley officiating. Bill Cothern delivered the eulogy. Interment followed the 1:00 p.m. service in the Smith lot in the Beasley-Brooks section at Dixon Springs Cemetery.
Born Raymond Allen Smith at the former McFarland Hospital in Lebanon on December 24, 1943, he was the only child of Graveltown Community merchant, Raymond Douglas Smith, who died December 5, 1971 at the age of 53, and Neil Marie Cornwell Smith, who died April 11, 2014 at the age of 90.
He was saved at the age of 16 in the middle of Pleasant Shade Highway near the Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church while Eld. L.O. Barclay was the Pastor and was baptized into the full fellowship of Mt. Tabor in 1961.
Rainie was a 1962 graduate of Smith County High School where he majored in mathematics and science and was in the Beta Club for two years, played football, and his senior year was voted the most improved player. and was in the “C” Club his junior and senior years. He served as the Vice-President of his senior class and was also voted by his classmates as the Most Popular boy his senior year.
His senior yearbook quote was “Every hero becomes a friend at last.” Following graduation, he attended Cumberland College in Lebanon.
In Houston, Texas on May 28, 1969, he was united in marriage to Madill, Oklahoma native, the former Wanda Jo “Jody” Rollins.
They were preceded in death by their only daughter, Holly Jane Smith White who died following a long battle with cancer on January 24, 2024 at the age of 52.
Mr. Smith began employment with Moss Service and Supply as an electrician in 1963 and retired in 2010 following over 46 years of service.
Surviving in addition to his wife Jody. of over 56 years is a son, Chad Smith & wife Christie of the Four-Way-Inn Community; son-in-law, Tracy White also of the Four-Way-Inn Community; four grandchildren, Loni Lynn Jones & partner Jared Johnson of Carthage, Chance Waller of the Pleasant Shade Community, Payton Smith & wife Audri of the Riddleton Community, Journee Smith of the Four-Way-Inn Community; four great-grandchildren, Hazel, Rylan, Keegan, and Deklan.
The Smith family requested memorials to the Honor The Dead/Feed The Living Food Fund, the Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church, or the Friendship Primitive Baptist Church.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
