Dec. 22, 1929 – Dec. 29, 2019

 

CLAYTON– Services for Gena K. Smart, 90, of Ridgecrest, Louisiana, who died Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, in Alexandria, Louisiana, will be 1 p.m. Wednesday at Clayton Baptist Church, 8722 Louisiana Highway 566 in Clayton, with the Rev. Emile Bordelon officiating.

Burial will follow at Greenlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Natchez under the direction of Young’s Funeral Home.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the funeral home’s Ferriday chapel.

Mrs. Smart was born Dec. 29, 2019, in Brookhaven, the daughter of Geems and Arcola Smith.

She attended West Lincoln School in Brookhaven and Draughn Business College in Jackson. She grew up at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Brookhaven where she was baptized in 1943. She was very active in music for all her churches she attended. Gena was one of the first workers at International Paper Company in Natchez as a secretary. She retired from Adams County Welfare Department after 15 years.

Gena was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She will be missed by everybody who knew her.

She was preceded in death by her parents; four sisters, Velma Britt, Martell Byrd, Maude Smith and Parlee Smith; one brother, Hugh V. Smith; one granddaughter, Jennifer Jean Smith; and former husband, Charles W. Nelson.

Survivors include her husband, Billy R. Smart; one son, Mitchell Nelson and wife, Sarah; five daughters, Alana Nelson, Suzane Robertson, Debbie Gordon and husband, Phil, Melanie Richardson and Gena Garrity; two stepdaughters, Becky Bennett and husband, Lawrence, and Gail Faust and husband, Rex; three sisters, Laverne Lee, Evelyn Smith and Johnnie Jackson; eight grandchildren; and a number of great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, family and friends.

Pallbearers will be Phil Gordon, George Bourke, Robert Newman, Daniel Bordelon, Lawrence Bennett and Alaric Snow.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at youngsfh.com.