Vernon "Vernie" Vancle Smith

Vernon Vancle (Vernie) Smith was born in Angelina County, Texas on September 14, 1926, and passed away on Sunday, July 21, 2019.  Funeral Service: 2 p.m. Thursday, July 25, 2019 in White’s Chapel of Memories, Weatherford. Interment:  Memory Gardens of the Valley, Weatherford Visitation:  6 – 8 p.m. Wednesday at White’s Funeral Home. Born to William Champ and Minnie Cox Johnson, she was the youngest of nine children. Her childhood was spent in a small farming community called Peavy Switch, close to Lufkin, Texas.  When Vernie was eight years old, she and another member of her family contracted the dreaded polio virus which left her crippled in her right leg and forced to wear a steel brace her entire life.  She attended school at Hudson, Texas near her home, but due to her medical needs with her polio side effects, it took her a little longer to graduate.  However, through determination and hard work, she graduated in 1946. After graduation, Vernie met and married Judge Murphy Smith, and they made their first home in Geneva, a little spot on the road in the piney woods of East Texas.  While living in Geneva, Judge and Vernie started their family with two boys, first Kenneth, and two years later Gene.  Vernie spent her first years as a wife and mother tending to her family’s needs. In 1952, Judge followed work to Dallas where he worked for different electrical crews and later became an electrical lineman, working for the City of Weatherford.  It was at this time that Vernie started working as a grocery cashier at places like Tony’s Grocery on the north side of Weatherford and Buddies grocery chain.  This is where Vernie became a people-person, meeting new people, talking to old customers, and caring about people’s needs. After years of cashier work, she changed careers and started working for Jamak, Inc. and worked there until she retired.  Vernie was a working woman and found retirement a little slow, so she found employment as a door greeter at Walmart on South Main in Weatherford. Sometime during Judge and Vernie’s stint in Weatherford, they decided to move back to the piney woods of East Texas, but soon realized that home was not there, but in Weatherford, and close to their children and grandchildren. Judge died in 1984, and Vernie moved close to her son Kenneth, in Brock, where she lived until 2007 when a stroke left her unable to walk.  She lived the remainder of her life at Holland Lake Nursing facility.  Vernie loved her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and was involved with her Church of God family until her stroke.  Despite her disability, she always believed that when she got to Heaven she would run down the streets of gold with Christ, and on July 21, 2019, she started that run. She was preceded in death by her husband, Judge Murphy Smith; and her son, Harold Gene Smith.  Vernie is survived by her son, Kenneth and his wife, Cathy; her grandchildren, Ray Smith, Clay Smith and wife, Amy, Tara Shirley and husband, Darin, Michael Smith and wife, Katie; her great-grandchildren, Hunter Smith, Kiernan Smith, Taylor Durham, Hannah Smith, and Nathan Smith; and Lainey Riedel, her great great-granddaughter.