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Masters Funeral Home

Interlachen, Florida 32048

Eddis Evans Smith Click for Condolences      Printable Version
1917 - 2017

Eddis Evans SmithEddis Evans Smith, 99, of Silsbee, Texas, went to be with the Lord on July 31, 2017, at Silsbee Oaks Nursing Home. Funeral services will be Thursday, August 3, 2017, at 2 P.M. at Farmer Funeral Home in Silsbee with interment in Gore Cemetery, Silsbee, TX. Visitation will be Wednesday 5:00 to 8:00 P.M. at the funeral home.

Eddis was born on Nov. 3, 1917 to Ben D. Smith and Lou Rita Mizzles Smith in Pike County, Arkansas. His family moved to Silsbee, Texas on Oct. 12, 1930. They had the first one-hundred acre farm under fence in Hardin County.

He graduated from Silsbee High School in 1936. He went on to graduate from Chenier’s Business College in Beaumont. He married Nettie Henley from Silsbee on Feb. 23, 1940. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he was drafted into the U. S. Army where he was called upon to do some extraordinary things under some difficult circumstances. When he left home, his father told him, “You need to be the best soldier you can possibly be and give it your all because if this war is not won, we will all be slaves.”

He did just that. Eddis always said he was not a hero but a survivor. He felt the heroes were the soldiers that did not come back and truly gave their all. He served during WWII in the 3rd and 9th Medics, warehousing medical supplies that were so essential to the care of the wounded soldiers. He was stationed in New Zealand, Australia, The Philippines, New Guinea and Japan. His parents had five sons actively serving at one time during WWII.

After returning from the war, he worked at Britton Cravens Lumber Company in Silsbee until he entered the ministry. He attended East Texas Baptist College in Marshall and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. While attending college, he was married with two children to support, working 40 hours a week as a shop foreman at the Ford Motor Company in Marshall, Texas, and pastoring churches on weekends sometimes hundreds of miles away.

He later became a full-time minister which included being the first pastor of Pinecrest Baptist in Silsbee when it was only a mission. Upon retirement, he and his wife, Nettie, moved to Sam Rayburn Lake where he enjoyed fishing for many years. During his retirement, he served as minister for Texas Air Stream Village near Zavalla for fifteen years. He also preached revivals and served as supply and interim pastor in six surrounding counties.

After his first wife passed, he went on to marry Geneva Pickard of Geneva, Texas. They enjoyed six years together and moved to Silsbee shortly before her death. He continued to live in Silsbee enjoying friends and family until his death at age ninety-nine years and eight months.

He is preceded in death by his parents and seven brothers, Lowell, Maurice, Dean, George, Tuney, Paul and Haskel and one sister, Eunice Martin Webster; wife Nettie Lucille Henley Smith, wife Geneva Pickard Smith; son-in-law Nathan Eugene Standley; step-sons Paul Parrish, Perry Parrish, and Keith Pickard.

He is survived by daughter Martha Clark and husband Joe of Silsbee, daughter Judy Smith Standley of Onalaska, and one granddaughter Cassie Balla and husband Jay of Silsbee; grandsons Trevor Balla and wife, Lauren of Lumberton, Tyler and Ryan Balla both of Silsbee; two sisters-in-law, Edna Smith of Silsbee and Bobbie Smith of The Woodlands; step-sons James Parrish and wife Sonya of Nederland, Royce Parrish and wife Arlene of Pineland, step-daughter-in-law Laurie Parrish of Fairfield, California, Greg Pickard and wife Nancy of Orange, Bruce Pickard and wife Leva of Ashland, Kentucky; numerous nieces, nephews and step-grandchildren.







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