robert emmett smitherman
EAST BEND- Robert Emmett
(Bob) Smitherman, 72, widely known for his restoration of antique cars,
died at 3:15 p.m. yesterday at his home here.
He had been in declining health 10 years, but death was unex- pected. He suffered a heart attack while playing with three grand- children.
Except for three years in the West as a young man, Mr. Smitherman spent his life in East Bend.
He was born Feb. 8, 1888, to Thomas A. and Mattie Horn Smitherman. His father made wagons and buggies. A restless young man, Mr. Smitherman went West, and for a time drove har- ness horses on the racing circuit in Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio.
He returned to East Bend and joined his father in the T. A Smitherman Buggy Co. In 1913 he married Ella V. Martin at Urbana, Illinois.
As the automobile came more and more into common use, Mr. Smitherman and his father began building truck bodies on chassis they received.
When his father died in 1927, he continued in the same line and in the same building his father had built. The building, architecturally unique, still attracts artists from Winston-Salem and Northwest North Carolina as a subject for sketching and painting.
When the antique car fad developed here, enthusiasts turned to Mr. Smitherman for help because of his knowledge of old cars. His faithfulness to detail impressed them, and before long the shop was jammed with cars to be restored. But he never hurried a job.
Although he suffered a stroke in 1949, he returned to work a few months later and continued on a modified basis until two days before his death. As recently as Friday he had gone to work as usual in the old shop almost directly across the street in front of his home. He was unable to work Saturday.
Years ago members of the family can't remember exactly when Mr. Smitherman joined the Junior Order of American Mechanics, a fraternal group in which he remained active.
Surviving are the wife of the home; two sons, Lt. Col. Willis E. Smitherman of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and R. Lowell Smitherman of King; two daughters, Mrs. Jack C. Alexander of Winston-Salem and Mrs. Richard M. Ulman of Detroit, Mich.; a sister, Miss Blanche Smitherman of East Bend; and 12 grandchildren. The body is at Hayes-Matthews Funeral Home at Boonville. Funeral plans are incomplete.
He had been in declining health 10 years, but death was unex- pected. He suffered a heart attack while playing with three grand- children.
Except for three years in the West as a young man, Mr. Smitherman spent his life in East Bend.
He was born Feb. 8, 1888, to Thomas A. and Mattie Horn Smitherman. His father made wagons and buggies. A restless young man, Mr. Smitherman went West, and for a time drove har- ness horses on the racing circuit in Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio.
He returned to East Bend and joined his father in the T. A Smitherman Buggy Co. In 1913 he married Ella V. Martin at Urbana, Illinois.
As the automobile came more and more into common use, Mr. Smitherman and his father began building truck bodies on chassis they received.
When his father died in 1927, he continued in the same line and in the same building his father had built. The building, architecturally unique, still attracts artists from Winston-Salem and Northwest North Carolina as a subject for sketching and painting.
When the antique car fad developed here, enthusiasts turned to Mr. Smitherman for help because of his knowledge of old cars. His faithfulness to detail impressed them, and before long the shop was jammed with cars to be restored. But he never hurried a job.
Although he suffered a stroke in 1949, he returned to work a few months later and continued on a modified basis until two days before his death. As recently as Friday he had gone to work as usual in the old shop almost directly across the street in front of his home. He was unable to work Saturday.
Years ago members of the family can't remember exactly when Mr. Smitherman joined the Junior Order of American Mechanics, a fraternal group in which he remained active.
Surviving are the wife of the home; two sons, Lt. Col. Willis E. Smitherman of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and R. Lowell Smitherman of King; two daughters, Mrs. Jack C. Alexander of Winston-Salem and Mrs. Richard M. Ulman of Detroit, Mich.; a sister, Miss Blanche Smitherman of East Bend; and 12 grandchildren. The body is at Hayes-Matthews Funeral Home at Boonville. Funeral plans are incomplete.