SMITH, Frank A. - Calcasieu Parish Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....
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The Lake Charles American Press
Obituary: Frank A. Smith
Date: Monday, 27 Apr 1942
 
FRANK A. SMITH DIES SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT HOME, RITES TODAY
Manager of American Press Succumbs After Illness of Almost a Year; Services 
will be at Home At 4 o'Clock
 
QUIETLY, AS he slept at home, death came Sunday afternoon at 5:15 to Frank A. 
Smith, 58, secretary-treasurer and manager of the American Press Co, Inc, 
ending a period of illness covering almost a year.
 
After what had seemed a period of improvement in the long illness which began 
last June, he was stricken again about two weeks ago and had been confined to 
his bed since. Friday night he went into a coma from which he never aroused.
 
With hope almost abandoned early Sunday morning, he continued the fight for 
life until Sunday afternoon when death ocurred.
 
Surviving besides his wife, the former Miss Irene Rhodriguez, are his son, 
Fred T. Smith; a sister, Mrs. Lillian Cothran, Indio, California; and a 
grandaughter, Gayle Ellen Smith.
 
SERVICES TODAY
Funeral service were scheduled for this afternoon at 4 o'clock from the home 
with Rev. George F. Wharton, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, and 
Rev. J. Henry Howdon, pastor of the First Methodist Church, officiating. 
Interment will be in Graceland Cemetery with Masonic rites to be conducted there.
 
Arrangements are in charge of the Burke Funeral Home.
 
Active pallbearers will be Arthur L. Gayle, Cliff Liles, Alfred Roberts, 
R. L. Cline, A. O. King, Terrell Woosley, Allen Rhorer, and Clement M. Moss. 
Honorary pallbearers will be all of his friends.
 
Through a period of 38 years of newspaper work in Lake Charles, beginning as 
a printer, Mr. Smith, in the peculiar manner open to men in his profession, 
placed his influence behind every move for civic improvement in Lake Charles 
and this area.
 
WORKED FOR BRIDGE
In public capacity, he held but two positions during his almost a life time of 
service in the newspaper field here. During the old Hoover administration he 
werved as chairman of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration for Southwest 
Louisiana. Some years before he died, he served as chairman of the bridge 
committee of the Association of Commerce. At his death, he held a membership 
in the local union of the International 
Typographical Union.
 
Coming to Lake Charles in 1904 as a printer, he worked on the old Lake Charles 
American, then with the Lake Charles American Press when the Lake Charles 
American and Lake Charles Press were combined. In 1911, he was named manager 
of the consolidated papers, which position he held until the time of his last illness.
 
BEGAN ON PAPER
Frank Armstrong Smith, was born in Cleveland, Tenn., Nov. 23 1884. His parents 
were Leonidas Theodore Smith, one-time postmaster of Dalton, Ga., and 
Mary Eleanor McNabb Smith, a daughter of Dr. A. McNabb, one-time city 
physician at Chattanooga and a granddaughter of Ake Henry, Tennessee 
statesman of ante bellum times.
 
His newspaper career began with the selling of the Morning Times in the old 
Union depot at Chattanooga.
 
With the removal of his parents to Ardmore, Indian Territory, he attended 
private school of that city, later entering Hargrove college of that city.
 
His work on newspapers was resumed after leaving school, serving an 
apprenticeship on the Montague (Texas) Democrat. After working on various 
newspapers in Oklahoma and Texas, he came to Lake Charles as a printer, 
following tht trade until 1911 when he became manager of the American Press, 
continuing in that capacity until the time of his death.
 
He was married January 23, 1908, at Lake Charles, to Miss Irene Rhodriguez, to 
which union was born one son, Fred Taylor Smith.
 
HELPED RELIEF AGENCIES
Mr. Smith served several years in the Texas National Guard as a member of the 
Nocona unit. Aside from a chairmanship of the F.E.R.A., inaugruated during the 
Hoover administration, embracing the parishes of Allen, Acadia, Beauregard, 
Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Vermillion, Jefferson Davis and Vernon, he 
has never held public office.
 
He went through all the chairs of the Masonic Blue lodges, serving one year 
as Worshipful master of Lake Charles Lodge No. 165 and is a charter member 
and was first treasurer of Calcasieu Loege No. 400 F. & A. M. He is a 32nd 
degree Mason and a Knight Templar.
 
He was secretary-treasurer of Beatty & Smith, Inc., owners of commercial 
property and oil royalties. He was president of the Southern Land Sales Corp., 
owners and developers of Edgemont and Garden Hill subdivisions.
End of obituary.