Charles W. Smith

#55, 56 & 57 Charles Willis Smith (1895-1974) 1937-1942

Charles Willis Smith, son of William Francis Smith and Nellie Holt Mooers, was born May 28, 1895 near Rhodes, Marshall County, Iowa. His father, William Smith was a railroad agent and telegrapher so the family lived in many small towns across Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Charles W. Smith graduated from Jackson High School in Jackson, Minnesota.

He enlisted in the army on December 12, 1917 serving in France as a sergeant with the 830^th Army Air Service during World War I. Following his release from the service in 1919, he settled in Nevada. He married Mary Bernice “Bernice” Boynton, daughter of Willard Henry Boynton and Ida Belle Lockwood, on August 19, 1922 in Nevada, Story County, Iowa.

Mr. Smith worked for the Reuben H. Donnelley Corporation in Nevada. He served three terms as mayor of Nevada from 1937 to 1942. The family removed to Des Moines in 1946 when he became a Veterans Employment Representative with the Iowa Employment Service. In June 1960, he retired and he moved to Los Angeles California in 1961.

Bernice (Boynton) Smith died in 1963. As in Iowa, Charles was active in the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars organizations. He remained is his home until about 1967 when he moved in with his son and family who also lived in California.

Charles Willis Smith died on February 3, 1974 in Los Angeles, California. He was survived by his son, Charles Vance Smith.