David F. Smith was a member of a large family and was preceded in death by his parents Willie R & Alma Smith and 4 brothers Sonny, James, Herbert and Hubert and sister Sybil and survived by his sister Jean. David is also survived by his loving wife JoAnn and children David F. Smith, Jr., Patricia Sherwood and Randy Smith and his wife, Maria Dahl-Smith; grandchildren Michael & Kristi Sherwood, Randi & Dusty Fletcher, Blake Smith, Chelsea Smith, Melissa Smith and Matthew Dahl, and four great grandchildren Alexander and Natalie Sherwood, Landon Fletcher and Natalie Smith, and many friends and extended family members.
David was a man of many talents as demonstrated by his careers in business, construction and other pursuits. He graduated from Tyler Commercial College early in life, and returned to college at Tyler Junior College where he earned several Associates Degrees including one in Real Estate. He enjoyed many things throughout his life including gardening, building things, fishing, square dancing, camping and so many others. However, his main focus has always been his family. He learned to grow things as a child and planted and harvested vegetables and fruits to feed his family. He enjoyed working with wood and spent many hours sharing that with both of his sons, building things for the family home, building homes and building things for his grandchildren including child size tables for family gatherings, push cars for grandchildren to play with when they spent time in the summer with their grandparents, square dancing with his wife JoAnn and many life long friends, He loved his family and just being around people, never without something to talk and laugh about. David and JoAnn were married 65 years ago at the Chapel at Marvin Methodist Church and they were currently members of the First United Methodist Church in Bullard.
David can be described by many things but these four things come to mind:
1) Honesty - David was always honest but mostly kept his opinion to himself unless asked. In the life lessons passed on from parent to children, he used few words but those words were meaningful, and inspired independent thinking and growth in his children
2) Unconditional - David's love for his family was unconditional. In spite of many mistakes that were sure to have hurt his feelings, he never gave up on caring and providing whatever was needed for his family. He taught his children to love their children by his example.
3) Imperfection - David was not perfect and in that too he taught his children that being an imperfect parent was not only ok but another life lesson. At some point all children realize that their parents are not perfect and when we become parents it is important to remember we will all just do the best we can and that our children can learn from that.
4) Parenting is the biggest and hardest job any of us will ever do. And we parent to all the children around us whether their ours or not and even when those "children" have become adults. For David parenting was not about telling your children how you would do it, but inspiring his children to think and decide for themselves who they wanted to be and to show unconditional love for children.
One of the last memories I will carry with me always is when meeting with the three kids and both parents about their future care just a few months ago, Dad suggested we needed a group hug and all five of us did that.
If anyone wishes to make a donation in memory of David in lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the First United Methodist Church of Bullard, 204 South Rather St. | Bullard, TX 75757, http://www.bullardfumc.org/memorial-gifts.
