Kenneth Duane Smith was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to George and Eleanor Smith on August 7, 1945. He is preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Donald Smith and Jay Smith. He is survived by his wife Jane, son Jason, daughter Kaci and her husband Dave and their three children Teaghan, Duncan, Declan, and daughter Kim and her husband Kris and their three children Cheyenne, Peyton and Parker.
Since his dad was career Army, Ken lived in many states and Germany. While in Germany as a boy, he was on the winning team of the Little League. When his dad was stationed at Ft Lewis in 1958, the family lived in Olympia and started attending Emmanuel Baptist Church, where he was very active in the youth group. His passion in high school, Olympia High - Go Bears, was wrestling. After high school he joined the Army. On December 17, 1966, he married his wife Jane who he met in the youth group at Emmanuel Baptist Church.
Ken made the Army a career, so they traveled quite a bit and lived several places. During their military lives, besides several states, they lived in Italy three years and Germany three years. After retiring from the Army they came back to Olympia to be close to family. He worked odd jobs for awhile until he started driving for Intercity Transit. Ken and Jane quit their jobs in 2000 to try a team career, which took them away from the Olympia area. After several months both agreed they needed to return to Olympia to be close to family again. Again he worked a couple odd jobs, one being with a close friend from youth group, Stan Griffin. Needing to find a job with benefits caused Ken to move on to working for Pierce Transit. He retired from there in 2012. He and Jane sold their home in Olympia to live the beach life in Ocean Shores.
While living in Ocean Shores it became apparent to Jane that he was following the footsteps of his dad into Alzheimer’s. Wanting to be closer to the children before he got to the point of forgetting them, Jane convinced Ken to move back to Olympia so the kids would have more time with him before that happened. The children got a few more years with their dad.
In April of this year, he had to be placed into Memory care. It was a rough road at first, but ended up being the best place for him. He became a model resident and the staff at The Lodges loved him. They too were sadden at his passing! The family were told they wished all their residents were like him.
Ken loved the Lord with all his heart, and is now in his Savior’s presence.
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