Uncle Snuffy

Monday morning, June 1, 2009, while driving the kids to Bible School, I pulled my Bible out that I keep in my car. I told Savell and Dwayne, let’s read a verse before we get to town. This is the verse we read:

Psalm 40: 1 -2 “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand”.

I told the children this after reading the verse. I said, God promises us that He will always come and rescue us. Sometimes life is so hard, that we feel as if we are in a pit, sinking fast. But, God will come and pull us out, and set our feet upon a rock. I pulled out my PapPaw Smith’s Bible Commentary this morning, and it says, “after a period of great waiting, the psalmist was rescued from great trouble. He has been given a new song to sing. It is a petition for immediate deliverance.

Now, at the time, I did not know how much those words would comfort me at the end of the day. When we got the call around lunchtime, I remembered reading those words and it gave me comfort. My Uncle Snuffy has weathered so many storms, some so hard that I often wondered how he was still standing. I know that God had mercy on my Uncle Snuffy, and pulled him out of the mud and the mire, and has set his feet on a rock. Not many people know, that my Uncle Snuffy became a man of prayer several years ago. He discovered that sometimes in life, we need more than our strength to weather the storms of life, we need to pray to God, our Father, and let Him handle things. Though I will miss my Uncle Snuffy tremendously, I am at peace today because I know he is finally at peace. Yes, I am sad, I don’t understand fully God’s ways, and I wish Uncle Snuffy was still here. But, I serve a God who promises me that He has prepared a place for us. I know that Uncle Snuffy is happy, and free of worry today.

Now, let me share some of my memories…………..
Uncle Snuffy was the center of every family gathering we have ever had. In all of our pictures, He is always smiling, probably because He just got finished telling a joke or making some witty remark. He still doesn’t know that as a child, I used to stick Bible verses in his wallet, except I would change the wording, usually it went something like this…….”For God so loved Tommy, that he gave His only begotten son. He probably figured out who did it, but I never mentioned it and neither did he. Uncle Snuffy was by far my favorite uncle, and for that matter, he was everyone’s favorite uncle. He was so full of life. Uncle Snuffy bought me my first puppy, a red cocker spaniel named Sandy. It was so like him to go buy you a pet, or give you a pet without ever asking your parents if you could have it or not. In fact, we have a housecat now that he gave Savell 3 years ago. Do you honestly think he asked Brookie Duett if Savell could have a cat? No, but now it serves as a constant reminder of the love he had for me and my kids. At family gatherings, Snuffy was always making us laugh. You could find him doing crazy things such a donning a lady’s wig and dress to pointing out to us that Mama had a mirror hanging over the toilet and that a man should not have to look at himself while using the bathroom. He said, “Does she not know that “that mirror” in there could scar a man forever?” Uncle Snuffy also, loved chocolate……… especially my Nanny’s snicker bar cake. His birthday is the day before Dwayne’s and we always made sure that Dwayne’s cake was some sort of chocolate so Snuffy could have some too. Back in the late 80’s the song Love Shack came out. I remember that Uncle Snuffy loved that song, so I went and bought him a cassette single of Love Shack. Later, we went shopping in his white cadillac, and we had to listen to Love Shack over and over and over. Uncle Snuffy is also responsible for my love of Hank Williams Jr.’s music. I remember that every time a special came on I would call Snuffy and tell him that Hank Williams Jr. was on.

These are just a few of my memories. We, all, are going to miss him tremendously. It is my prayer today that everyone knows how special of a man he was. I could talk to him about things that I could not talk to anyone else about. That is probably what I am going to miss the most. He used his struggles to help me understand some of my own. There will forever be a void in our family. I love you Uncle Snuffy and thanks for the memories.

John Thomas Smith, affectionately known as “Snuffy” by his friends and “Tommy” by his family, went to be with the Lord on June 1, 2009, outside Gulfport, Mississippi. He was born May 1, 1953, in Belzoni, Mississippi, and lived there the majority of his life. Recently, he resided in Long Beach, Mississippi and enjoyed telling his family and friends how much he loved living on the coast. He enjoyed playing golf, fishing, hunting, and spending time with his family and friends. He was always the center of every family gathering and always had his family laughing at all of his witty remarks. He was preceded in death by his father, John Aron Smith. He leaves to cherish his memory, his wife, Martha Jean Smith of Long Beach; three sons, James Eric Smith (Debbie), Yazoo City; Joe Aron Smith (Melissa), Cleveland; Jason Thomas Smith, Long Beach; his mother, Marie Smith, Belzoni; one brother, Joe Arthur Smith (Mary Ann), Gore Springs; three sisters, Gaye Savell (Harry), Belzoni, Shirley Nixon (Rusty), Yazoo City, and Barbara McAlexander (Marvin), Tillamook, Oregon; 5 granchildren, Rachael, Erica, Joe, John, and Joseph, and numerous neices and nephews. Pallbearers were Don Long, Charles Edwards, Cecil Womble, Jimmy Taylor, Joseph Walker, Harold Howard, Jeff Nixon, Jimmy Hearn, Mickey Foxworth, Gordan Wayne Davis, and Colonel Leon Coody. Services were officiated by his nephew, Chaplain Scott Savell, and Reverend Robert Ragland. Burial was in Belzoni City Cemetary, Belzoni, Mississippi.