Betty Smith Obituary

Mrs. Betty Smith, a longtime homemaker of the Hickman Community, departed her earthly journey at 3:15 a.m. Friday morning July 25, 2025 at the age of 98 at the Smith County Health and Rehabilitations Center in Carthage where she had convalesced from a hip fracture since December 10, 2024.

After selling her Hickman Community farm she moved to Carthage and before her hip fracture she had made her home at the Pavilion in South Carthage.

Funeral services from the Hickman Baptist Church will be conducted Tuesday morning July 29th at 11 a.m. by the church pastor, Bro. Tommy Ferguson and Mrs. Smith's farm neighbor, Mark Medley will deliver the eulogy. Burial will follow beside her husband in the Smith Family plot at the Baird Cemetery in the Hickman Community.

The Smith family will receive friends at Sanderson in Carthage on Monday July 28th from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. and at the Hickman Baptist Church on Tuesday from 10 a.m. until the 11 a.m. services.

She was born Betty Jean Payne in Stillwater, Oklahoma on April 3, 1927 and was one of two daughters and a son of the late John W. Payne who died at the age of 86 on February 21, 1988 and Emma Pauline Marzahn Payne who died at the age of 80 on September 13, 1981.

A sister, Doris Louise (Dorothy) (Dot) Mitchell died September 12, 1982 at the age of 58 and her brother, Robert W. (Bob) Payne died December 27, 2012 at the age of 76.

She was a 1945 graduate of Ponca City High School in Ponca City, OK.

On March 7, 1953 she was united in marriage to Hickman Community native John Donald Smith in Yuma, Arizona. He preceded her in death at the age of 76 on September 25, 2006 following over fifty-three years of marriage.

She was a retired bank teller for the former Commerce Union Bank in Lebanon.

Mrs. Smith was a longtime member of the Hickman Baptist Church.

Her first husband, a U. S. Navy veteran, William Thomas Stafford of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, was killed at the end of World War II and ten days before the declaration of the Korean War. The father of Miss Jackie and Bill Stafford, he died while serving our country on June 15, 1950 at the age of 24.

Surviving are her five children, Jacqueline "Miss Jackie" Carver and her husband Jacky Sr. of Carthage, William Thomas "Bill" Stafford and wife Bonnie McDonald Stafford of Gordonsville; David Smith of Monteagle, Tennessee, Judy Smith and husband George of Carthage; Sherye Sims and husband Mike of Westminster, Maryland; eleven grandchildren; Jacky Carver Jr. and wife Liz Tedrow Carver of the Tanglewood Community, Kristie Dixon of the Hickman Community, Bryan Stafford and wife Jasmine, Dawn Stafford all of Gordonsville, Lacey Carter Crockett and husband Jeff Crockett of the Bradford Hill Community, Retired U. S. Army Sgt. 1st Class, Derek Carter and wife LaTora Givens Carter of Sweetwater, Tennessee, U. S. Coast Guard Lieutenant, Landon Carter and wife Kala of Galveston, Texas, Craig Dugan of the Grant Community, Josh Dugan of Lebanon, Lauren Pobbletts and husband Todd of Hampstead, Maryland, John Sims of Manchester, Maryland; nineteen great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren; best friend and Smith County Health Care roommate, Esther Hunter.

The Smith family requests memorials to the Hickman Baptist Church.

Pallbearers: Jacky Carver Jr., Bryan Stafford, Derek & Landon Carter, John Sims,

Craig & Josh Dugan, Bailey Roney