Henry Louis Smith, 94
Henry Louis Smith, beloved father and husband, passed away Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Mr. Smith was born on Saturday, June 18, 1927, in Sardis, AL, to Emanuel and Viola (née Richardson) Smith, one of ten children.
Mr. Smith served his country in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. His military career took him from the cotton fields of Alabama to Japan, Guam, North Africa, Thailand and several U.S. states. Mr. Smith was an honorary Tuskegee Airman and was a founding member of the John H. Porter Chapter of the National Tuskegee Airmen International. He often visited schools and institutions to tell the story of the legendary airmen. Mr. Smith was drafted along with other African Americans toward the end of World War Two, but was notified during his physical that the draft was ending. However, he chose to enlist and served his country for 30 years.
After a distinguished career in the Air Force, Mr. Smith retired for health reasons in 1975, with the rank of Senior Master Sergeant, from Dover Air Force Base, Dover, Delaware. He had been recommended for a promotion to Chief Master Sergeant-the highest enlisted rank in the Air Force-just prior to his retirement. He continued to work on the Air Base in civilian service for another 14 years.
Mr. Smith married Rosie Lee Hatcher on June 18, 1950. Together they raised four sons. Mr. Smith was a great storyteller, often regaling friends and family with tales of growing up in the segregated south. His father, Emanuel, was a sharecropper, and young Henry and his brothers and sisters worked in the fields with cotton, vegetables and other crops that were the bounty of the black agricultural belt. It was hard work, he often told his family, but it was where he learned his work ethic, something that he passed on to his sons.
Mr. Smith now joins his beloved wife, Rose who passed away in October 2020.
Mr. Smith is survived by his four sons, Melvin, Steven, Ronald and Calvin; sisters, Yvonne Richmond and Lola Pittman; brother, Auguster Maul; sisters-in-law, Roberta Dawson and Dorothy Snead; daughters-in-law, Julia Felscher and Connie Cline; nieces, Rowena West and Rachel D. Watts; and many more cousins, nieces and nephews.
Mr. Smith made lifelong friends serving in the military and civilian life, and will be sorely missed by many.
Funeral services will be held at Bennie Smith Funeral Home, 717 W Division Street, Dover, DE 19904, at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 (masks required). Interment to follow at Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Bear, Del.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation.