C. Owen "Smitty" Smith

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Drake University

C. Owen Smith Obituary

ALAMEDA, Calif. - C. Owen Smith, affectionately known as "Smitty," passed away at the age of 70 on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009, in Oakland, Calif. Smitty was a resident of Alameda, Calif., for more than a decade. Smitty was born in Geneva on July 11, 1939.

Smitty's childhood was spent primarily in Batavia and Geneva. He graduated from Geneva Community High School in 1957 and graduated with a bachelor's in fine arts from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1961 with the intention of becoming an artist. Smitty was an accomplished portrait artist, but opportunity knocked and set in motion Smitty's career in the fresh meats and provisions industry, most notably with Swift Premium, taking him on a journey around the country and making many friends along the way. Smitty lived in many places throughout his career, including Rockport, Mass., Brunswick, Ga., Charlotte, N.C., Reno, Nev., and finally Alameda, Calif., where he retired from his last employer as a salesman for Del Monte Meat Co. of Oakland, Calif.

Smitty's gregarious, outgoing personality and his wit, wisdom and sense of humor will be missed by all who knew him well.

Smitty is survived by his first wife, Sandra (nee Povall, divorced); their two sons, Jeff (wife Kris) and Kelly; granddaughter Morgan; sister Margo (husband Jim) Kautz (nee Wickwire); uncle Jim O'Flaherty; cousin Brian O'Flaherty; stepfather Ray Garrison; second wife Cindy (nee Snyder, divorced); and close friends Fred Shipley and Dave Hawksley.

He is preceded in death by his mother, Lorraine Garrison (nee Murphy), and his aunt, Lucille O'Flaherty (nee Murphy).

A small private service for the immediate family and close friends will be planned once Smitty's remains are returned home to Illinois.

Donations may be made in Smitty's memory to the American Cancer Society.

For information, e-mail [email protected].

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Kane County Chronicle from Sep. 1 to Sep. 2, 2009.

Memories and Condolences
for C. Owen Smith

3 Entries

Jim Richardson

September 7, 2009

I was very saddend to hear of Smitty's death and I want to express my condolences to his family.
I knew he had attended Geneva's 50th class reunion in 2007, but was not feeling well and didn't come to the BHS class reunion. I wished I could have seen him. After our class reunion I tried to contact Smitty using the internet. I was able to find his address and phone number and called him. He said that he had some back problems and wasn't doing very well. I tried to cheer him up with some of our shared past memories, which he enjoyed. I would mention something and he would elaborate on it. I wrote about some of these experiences in my memoirs. I have copied them here as a tribute to my memory of Smitty. I only wish that he had lived nearby, so I could have cheered and comforted him in his final days. My prayers are with his family in their time of grief.

EIGHTH GRADE
In 1952, the students from the Louise White school on the east side joined students from Mc Wayne school for eighth grade. Mrs. Palm was my homeroom teacher. She tried something new in her classroom by having the self-contained desks clustered in groups of five. There were two desks facing each other and one on the end facing in. She called them communities. I was the only west-sider in my community. There was Owen "Smitty" Smith. George Richter, Eddie Reeves, David Shaw and me. We tried to come up with a name for our community and we used an acronym of our first names: JODGE, or Jim, Owen, Dave, George and Eddie.

FOX RIVER NAVY
I hung around mostly with Dave and "Smitty." "Smitty" and I had an idea to build a raft to use on the Fox River, since he lived across the street from it. We saw a small, 4’ X 8’ plywood billboard in a trash heap on Main Street, across from Lindgren Foundry. We talked "Smitty's" mother into helping us by carrying it on the top of her car while we held it down reaching out the window. We went to various gas stations collecting discarded inner tubes. We bought a tube patching kit, some large screw eyelets and some rope for a total cost of a couple dollars. We patched the inner tubes, screwed the eyelets to the top of the billboard and used the rope to lash the inner tubes to the bottom. We had three inner tubes side by side under the billboard and one under the front, we painted it white with some old paint from "Smitty's" basement. With black paint, we painted the letters, FRN with an anchor, to represent the Fox River Navy. To propel this raft, we had a canoe paddle that was split so it was really only half a paddle. The other paddle was an airplane propeller, which had even less paddling surface than the half paddle. We launched this raft into the Fox River just above the Challenge Dam. With such a weak means of propulsion, one might wonder why we didn’t end up going over the dam. We really didn’t think much about it, but we did stay far enough away from the dam so we wouldn’t get drawn over it. I sure if my parents knew of this project, I wouldn’t be allowed to do it.
Even with half a paddle and an airplane propeller for our paddles, with hard work we were able to paddle our raft up the river to Fabyan's Forest Preserve and across the river to an area known as the pond, where some west-siders had a railroad tie raft. The railroad tie raft basically just sat in the water, half-submerged, but it couldn’t be sank. Ours was much faster and rode higher in the water, but was vulnerable to sinking if the inner tubes were slashed. We didn't have any trouble maneuvering away from the railroad tie raft, but some kids in a canoe gave us fits when they chased us across the river with knives and sinking us on their mind. They managed to slash the two rear inner tubes, but some rock throwing on our part discouraged them from further attacks. Besides, in a close conflict we could have escaped by tipping them over, which was the canoe's weakness. We kept the raft tied up to a tree on the river, not far from Smitty’s house. One day Smitty found that the raft was missing and we never found it. We suspect that someone had cut it loose and it floated down the river. We checked the area below the dam with no success. Remembering the situation, I only hope that somewhere down the river, some boys found it in useable shape and had as much fun as we did with it. I certainly wouldn’t allow one of my kids to do this. But Smitty and I did it and had a glorious adventure to remember.

Thanks for the memories, Smitty.

Dennis Feece

September 1, 2009

Our hearts go out to you at this time and in the days ahead.

Adelia Millar nee Ottinger

September 1, 2009

Remembering Owen and sending prayers of condolence.

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