Jack Dodson Smith

Jack Dodson Smith age 94, from Alvarado passed away Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at his residence. A Chapel service will be held at 1:00 PM Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at Marshall and Marshall Funeral Directors Chapel in Hillsboro with Chaplain Dan Ashley officiating. Burial will follow at Ridge Park Cemetery in Hillsboro. A visitation will be held from 6:00-8:00 PM, Monday, June 1, 2020 at Marshall and Marshall Funeral Directors.

Jack Dodson Smith was born near Osceola, Texas on October 12, 1925, to Burnice Elmer and Myrtle (Clifton) Smith. He graduated from Aquilla High School and lived his early life in the Central Texas area around Hillsboro, Itasca, and Cleburne. As a young man, he became a self-taught guitar player which led to an early career as a lead guitar player in several Western Swing bands who appeared in various live venues around Texas and on the radio.

In 1950, during one of his appearances in Houston, he met a vacationing Canadian woman, Mary Terentiak. Mary was smitten by the handsome guitar player and wrote him letters after she returned to Winnipeg. Jack had the good sense to write her back and, after a series of letters, Mary moved to Texas and married Jack in 1951. In 1953, they bore a son, Guy Dodson Smith. Jack worked briefly as a recruiter for the Army in Fort Worth and was ultimately recruited at 28 years old to serve in the Army with active duty in Korea. After serving his country, Jack returned to Texas and moved his young family to Fort Worth, where he worked briefly at Convair Aircraft as a machinist and eventually landed at Bell Helicopter where he was to work as a master machinist for 37 years, until his retirement in 1989. Jack and Mary settled in south Fort Worth and would add to the family in 1958, when their second son, Cory Leon, was born. When his older son Guy left for college in 1972, Jack and Mary moved southward from Fort Worth and settled near Keane, Texas. Their younger son, Cory, would eventually go to college in Killeen and become a pilot. Unfortunately, Cory would die in an airplane accident in New Mexico in 1980.

After over forty years of marriage, Jack would lose his first wife, Mary, to cancer in 1992. However, Jack would not remain a widower for long. As fate would have it, a former high school sweetheart, Dorothy Mahoney, whose husband had recently died, looked up and reconnected with Jack, ultimately leading to their marriage in 1995. Jack and Dorothy would eventually sell their respective homes in Desoto and Keane, and then design and build a new home together near Alvarado where they would live out the rest of their lives. While married, they traveled around Texas and visited friends and relatives and attended events such as Western Swing music festivals. Around 2015, Dorothy's health began to fade, and she would eventually spend the last couple of years of her life in a nursing home in Alvarado, attended dutifully and daily by Jack who lived nearby. In December 2018, Dorothy would pass away, leaving Jack a widower for the second time.

Jack continued to live independently through 2019 but his advancing age and health issues began to be a problem. In early 2020, it became clear that he was in a declining state and needed assistance with routine daily activities. His older son, Guy, moved in with him to aid him in the last few months of his life, and Jack was to die peacefully on May 27,202 in the home he and Dorothy had built together near Alvarado.

Jack is survived by his older son, Guy, his stepdaughter, Terri Morrison (Dorothy's daughter) of Aley, Texas, a niece, Jackie Blalock of Whitney, Texas, and several grandnephews and grandnieces, most of whom live in the North Central Texas area.

In Lieu of flowers, donations may be made to your local Meals on Wheels or your local SPCA.