John C Smith's Obituary
JOHN CALVIN SMITH was born on July 17,1929 in Woodbury, New Jersey, the youngest child of Victoria Alice Smith and Raymond James Smith. He went to be with the Lord on July 11, 2020. He is survived by his loving wife of sixty-nine years, Joanne Aileen Smith, five daughters: Carolyn Jean Smith (Richard Daughty) of Pinellas Park, FL, Deborah Ann Holly, deceased, (Jay) of St. Petersburg, FL, Betsy June Heard (Steve) of Largo, FL, Nancy Jeanine Barbara of St. Petersburg, FL, and Victoria Ruth Geisler, Tori, of St. Petersburg, FL. Seven grandchildren: Heather Holly, Nathan Holly, Sky Barbara(deceased),Maxwell Heard, Brooklyn Barbara, Richard Luecke, and Logan Geisler. Four great grandchildren: Haley Holly, Hannah Holly, Baylee Feinburg and Braelyn Feinburg. Two great, great grandchildren: Jeselyn and Jaylyn.
At the age of five, John’s family moved to Florida where he graduated from St Pete High School in 1947. He was active in sports, running track and playing football. He joined the Marines right out of high school, returning to his home in St. Petersburg in 1950 where he met his lovely wife, Joanne. After a whirl wind courtship John and Joanne were married on September 11, 1950. John spent the next sixty-nine years supporting his beautiful daughters and devoted wife. During this time, he worked at Florida Power, now Duke Energy, for forty-two years, where he became Division Meter man over Pinellas County. John also worked for twenty-two years at Derby Lane Dog Track.
John loved the outdoors where he enjoyed fishing, cast netting, scalloping and shrimping. He became known as THE SHRIMP KING. He loved nothing better than a fried shrimp dinner. Among his accomplishments he built a smokehouse to smoke mullet for the neighborhood. It was said that his smoked mullet was better than Ted Peters.
John spent many hours gardening for he had a green thumb. He loved walking for exercise. John lived a good life in his beloved St. Petersburg. My dear John, you will be missed.
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