Dec. 15, 1915 – April 1, 2013

MEADVILLE — Services for Ruby Walker Smith, 97, who died Monday, April 1, 2013, at Forest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, will be at 2 p.m. today at Franklin Funeral Home in Meadville.

Burial will follow at O’Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Meadville under the direction of Franklin Funeral Home.

Visitation will be from noon until service time today at the funeral home.

Mrs. Smith was born Dec. 15, 1915, in Little Springs, the daughter of John H. and May McGehee Walker. She retired in 1995 at the age of 80 after having been a site manager for Southwest Mississippi Senior Services in Roxie for 20 years. She also served as a house mother to the girls at the Protestant Home for Children in Natchez for a number of years.

For the majority of her life, Mrs. Smith lived in Roxie and attended Roxie Baptist Church. In her later years, she lived in Hattiesburg, Tupelo and Cleveland to be near her children.

Mrs. Smith was preceded in death by her husband, Willie W. “Bill” Smith; her parents; two sisters, Robbie Hammack and Laura McMillian; and six brothers, infant Marvin, Edward, George, Eugene, John Jr. and Edgar Walker.

Survivors include one daughter, Janet Smith Brister and husband, Howard, of Ripley; one son, William B. “Billy” Smith and wife, Judy, of Hattiesburg; one sister, Geneva Murray and husband, Lauvahn, of Brookhaven; one sister-in-law, Dora Wallace Walker of Milford, Utah; five grandchildren, William B. “Brad” Smith Jr. of Hattiesburg, Rebecca “Becky” Harman and husband, Joe, of Philomath, Ore., Deborah “Debbie” Heslep and husband, Robert, of Cleveland, Joseph H. “Joe” Brister of Salem, Mo., and Justin Todd Brister and wife, Amber, of Virginia Beach Va.; and 12 great-grandchildren, Joseph, Leigh and Phillip Harman, Jake, Luke, Kris and Kurt Smith, Jordan Brister, and Paul, Lynn, Connor and Bevin Brister.

Pallbearers will be great-grandsons.