Johnny C. Smith, 90, of Ruidoso, New Mexico, passed away at his home, on Friday, September 1, 2023, with his wife, Mary, and his son, James, by his side. A “Celebration of his Life” will be held with a graveside service on Saturday, September 30, 2023, at 10:30am at Oakwood Cemetery, 200 Front Street, Cisco, Eastland County, Texas. Johnny was born in Cisco, Texas in 1933 to John Thomas and Lillie Odessa Moss Smith. He was the eighth and last surviving of nine siblings. He was a 1951 Cisco Lobo graduate. He served in the Korean Conflict and was a Disabled Navy Veteran. After returning home, while working two jobs, he enrolled at Abilene Christian College and graduated with a Bachelors of Education Degree in 1962. He started his first teaching job at Rotan Junior High School where he taught math for two years. In 1964, along with the Abilene Christian College Exodus, he taught math in West Babylon Junior High and East Islip High School, Long Island, New York for four years. In 1968, he taught upper level math for two years at Hale Center High School, near Lubbock, Texas. Then in 1970, he taught math at Abilene High School, in Abilene, Texas.
While teaching at Abilene High School, he acquired his Master’s Degree in Counseling from Abilene Christian College. He retired from AISD as a Vocational Adjustment Coordinator and worked a total of thirty-two years in education.
Dad had a big heart to help anyone out…. picking up hitch-hikers along I-20 or taking in strangers and giving them a job, a place to live and food to eat. He loved to hunt and fish, evenholding the Boone and Crockett Record in Eastland County in 1992. While in Long Island, NewYork, Johnny and his first wife, Shirley, supported and attended the Church of Christ. He wasinvolved in many construction jobs both in housing and church building expansion. Almostevery Saturday, you could find Johnny with both sons on the construction site of a new house.
