Jackie "Jack" Lee Smith

Jackie “Jack” Lee Smith, 82, of Kokomo, passed away on Thursday, January 16, 2020, at Kavanagh House Hospice in Des Moines, Iowa.  He was born November 9, 1937, in Kokomo, to Robert Lee and Garnetha (Morris) Smith.  On August 30, 1958, he married Mary “Jane” Raibourn and they enjoyed 54 wonderful years of marriage until she passed in 2013.

Jack graduated from Kokomo High School in 1955 and from Indiana University Bloomington in 1959 where he wrestled.  Jack has been a lifelong sports fan, following local high school sports, the Hoosiers, the Colts and enjoying Indycar and NASCAR racing.

Jack always had a very strong work ethic.  He worked for 29 years in management at Continental Steel Corporation until its closure.  He then worked for nine years at CR Metals in Peru and then for ten years at the Kokomo Trustee’s Office, retiring in 2012.

Jack was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather.  He loved family outings, reunions and vacations.  He and Jane both loved genealogy and traced their family back numerous generations.  Jack took great pride in his home, his yard and his grandchildren.  He was a jokester and a tinkerer around the house. 

Jack grew up fishing with his father and worked for years in their family bait shop.  He loved to travel, read and enjoyed hiking, fishing and all kinds of outdoor adventures.

Jack was a simple man who was devoted to his family, his community and his work.  He was a member of Main Street United Methodist Church in Kokomo.

Survivors include his daughters, Jolene Dee (Keith) Murray, of Whiteville, North Carolina, and Julia Leigh (Steve) Shaffer, of Des Moines, Iowa; grandchildren, Jourdain, Maleah, Noah, Morgan and Hannah; and sisters, Norma Middleton, of Texas, and Phyllis Partlow, of Arizona.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, January 24, 2020, at Shirley & Stout Funeral Home, 1315 W. Lincoln Rd., Kokomo.  Entombment will follow in Sunset Memory Garden Cemetery.  Friends are invited to visit with the family from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday at the funeral home.  Contributions may be made in Jack’s memory to the Kokomo Rescue Mission or We Care.  Messages of condolence may be left online at www.stoutandson.com.

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