Extracted from The Ruston Daily Leader (Ruston, LA)
Friday, June 19, 1998

Myrtle Carver Smith

Myrtle Carver Smith of Ruston, Louisiana died at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, June 18 at Alpine Guest Care Center.

She was a native of Simpson, Louisiana, and had been a resident of Ruston for 72 years. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1931, with a degree in home economics. She married Frellsen Fletcher Smith in 1934. After graduating from Tech, she taught in the Springfield, Louisiana High School, where she organized a home economics department. In 1932, she became director of the Emergency Relief Administration in Vernon Parish. She moved to Monroe after she married in 1934, then to Ruston in 1936 where she became a parish home demonstration agent. While dedicating her life to her family, she was a charter member of the Women's Department Club of Ruston. She became Inter-racial chairman for the Girl Scouts in the Ruston area. She was active in the Church Women United organization in both the state and local levels, and she was president of this organization for seven years. She was an active member of the Ruston Church of God, where she taught every class in the Sunday Schooll except the Adult Class. She was active in the state work of the Church of God. She was state president of the church Women's Missionary Society for a number of years.

She was preceded in death by her husband; her sons [sic son], Charles Robert Smith; daughter-in-law, Karen Stone Smith; four brothers and seven sisters.

Survivors include three daughters and their husbands: Anita and Joe Womack of Anderson, Indiana, Marie and David Riggs of Ruston, and Lorna and Jon Kardatzke of Wichita, Kansas; one son and his wife: Alvin and Kathy Smith of Baton Rouge; twelve grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. She is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Sam (Eula) Jones of Pineville.

Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 21, 1998 at Kilpatrick Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will be at Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home of Ruston.

Visitation will be on Saturday, June 20 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Kilpatrick Funeral Home.