James Arthur Smith of Claypool, Oklahoma, died at 8:00 PM, Friday, February 20, 2004, in Lawton, Oklahoma, surrounded by his family. He had suffered a stroke the previous Sunday morning.

James was born November 23, 1917, in Terral, Oklahoma, to James Amon and Mattie Smith, and lived his life in the Claypool community in southwest Oklahoma. He graduated from Claypool High School in 1936, and attended Oklahoma A&M College in Stillwater on a track scholarship. He returned to the family farm where he remained a long-time farmer and rancher in Claypool. He for for more than seventeen years for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service in Waurika and later at Uniroyal Tire Company in Ardmore, where he retired in 1983. He also served on the Soil Conservation Service Board in Jefferson County.

James was proud to have helped bring rural electricity and phone service to Claypool families and to help fund and build the Claypool Fire Station. At the time of his death, James was chairman of the Jefferson County Democratic Party and a very active supporter. An extraordinary quail hunter, James was known for providing game for dinners, and he loved to host fish fries at his country home. James attended the First Baptist Church of Waurika and was very fond of his Sunday School class. He will be remembered for his ardent devotion to family, his selfless service to his community, his willingness to always help a neighbor, and his unwavering honesty and integrity.

He honored his parents. He believed in doing the right thing. He worked hard all his life and never liked to get too far from home. Anyone who met James knows he was a plain-spoken man. He loved a good story, and would often repeat the old favorites to family. His mind remained sharp and he could still quote poetry he had learned in school. He loved the Lord. He lived is full, rich life so that when the end came, his gentle death was just like his favorite poem, Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant.

so live that when thy summons comes to join the innumerable caravan which moves to that mysterious realm where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not like the quarry-slave at night scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lied down to pleasant dreams.

Survivors include: his wife of fifty-nine years, Orbie Smith of Claypool, OK; four daughters - Nancy Ward of Edmond, OK, Rebecca Cobo and her husband Gary, of Huntsville, TX, Deborah Wedel and her husband Bruce of Tuttle, OK, and Pamela Woods of Bedford, TX; eight grandchildren - Suzannah Rice and her husband Brian, Elena George and her husband Ben, Colin Beverly and his wife Lindsay, Derek Wedel and his wife Cindy, Heather Lyon and her husband Brennon, Nicholas and Michael Delgado, Katie Woods; one great-grandson, Jakob Wedel; a special niece, Sylvia Nelson and her family of Alvin, TX; his many beloved friends of the Claypool Community; and one special adopted son, Dennis Jeter, and his family of Dallas, TX.