Abbie Harriet Smith

Abbie Harriet Edmiston Smith, of Lindsay, passed away in her home on March 28, 2019, at the age of 84. She was born on August 11, 1934 to John David Mecklin Edmiston and Lela Jewel Gresham Edmiston in Chickasha, Oklahoma, the last of six children.

Harriet, as she was known, grew up in Chickasha. She attended Southwest School in the elementary grade, and graduated from Chickasha High School in 1952. She had been a member of the Chickette Pep Club while in High School and could still sing the school song for Southwest School.

She attended Oklahoma Baptist University on scholarship, and later attended Oklahoma College for Women, Central State University, and the University of Houston.

She married the love of her life, Gary Martin Smith, three months after they met, and three weeks after Gary TOLD her he was going to marry her.
They had one daughter, Holly, who was the light of her life.

Harriet and Gary made their home in Lindsay, Oklahoma, then moved to Texas, living in Alvin, Port Lavaca, and Cleveland. They came back to Lindsay in October of 1981, where, side by side, they started the Shopper News Note. It quickly became the largest weekly publication in Oklahoma, and Harriet was the business manager and bookkeeper.

Wherever they were, they made a happy home, and used humor regularly in their daily life. Harriet was particularly fond of a good practical joke, and routinely pulled them on her husband and daughter. She made the best fried chicken on Earth, was sharp as a tack, knew her Bible forward and backward, loved working in the yard, had a sparkling sense of humor, and was a technology hound. She always had to have the latest in I-phones and loved using her Apple Watch.

She was preceeded in death by her parents; her mother- and father-in-law, Grace and Hershel Smith; her brothers, John David Edmiston, Jr., William Todd Edmiston and wife Mary Ellen Anderson Edmiston, Robert Edmiston and wife Sara JoAnn Davis Edmiston; her sister, Ruby Grayson Edmiston DeKinder and husband E.L. ‘Major’ DeKinder; sister-in-law Ursula LaQuita Smith Pohl and husband Robert Fred Pohl, and brother-in-law Raus Lanford Smith; one nephew Donald Lawrence DeKinder and wife Edy DeLeon DeKinder; and her beloved husband of 54 years and five days, Gary Martin Smith.

Harriet is survived by her daughter, Holly Belknap and husband William, a granddaughter, Cristi Belknap, a great-grandson, Gunnar Belknap, all of Lindsay; also by one sister-in-law, Phyllis Smith, and nieces Diane Stinson, Cathy Schweitzer and husband David, Teresa Austian and husband Keith, Susan Broomfield and Glen Butler, Kristin Sorenson and husband Jesse, and nephews Kerry Smith and wife Charee, and Mark Smith and wife Kelli, great-niece Cynthia Patey and husband Tommy, and great-nephews Jerry DeKinder, Jeff Stinson, and Greg Stinson, along with many other great-nieces and nephews.

She will be laid to rest beside her husband at Green Hill Cemetery in Lindsay on Tuesday, April 2, 2019, at 2:00 pm with Bro. Danny Daniels officiating. Graveside services are under the direction of John W. Williams of Winans Funeral Home, Maysville, OK. Words of comfort may be sent to the family at www.winansfuneralhome.com