Dr. Patrick Henry Smith Sr., 85, passed away peacefully at his home in Florence, Ala., on Nov. 29, 2013. He is survived by his devoted wife, Paige Lindsey Smith.
Dr. Smith was born in Birmingham in 1928 and grew up in the close-knit community of East Lake, the youngest of six brothers and sisters. He was the son of Joseph Clay Smith, originally of Cairo, Ill., and Grace Walters Smith, originally of Michigan. He was preceded in death by his siblings, Josephine “Cissie” Lawhon, Joseph “Sonny” Clay Smith III, William P. Smith, Monroe “Buddy” Smith and Mary Ann “Pudgie” Paradiso.
Dr. Smith served in the U.S. Navy during 1946 and 1947. He finished Yeoman school in San Diego and served aboard the USS Saipan and in other capacities at naval bases in Maine, California and Rhode Island. He graduated from Howard College (Samford University) in Birmingham. He received his M.D. in 1956 from the Medical College of Alabama, in Birmingham, served an internship at Baptist Hospital in Birmingham and OB/GYN residencies at University Hospital in Birmingham and at Baylor Hospital in Houston, Texas. He practiced Obstetrics and Gynecology in private practice for 40 years in Birmingham and continued to practice part-time in regional clinics up until 2012. Dr. Smith also traveled to various clinics in the South as a provider to a number of women’s reproductive health clinics despite numerous threats to his life, and he stepped in unhesitatingly and immediately to replace Dr. David Gunn in Gulf Coast areas clinics when Dr. Gunn was murdered in Pensacola, Fla.
He thoroughly enjoyed the monthly coffee meetings of the Wayne Finley 811 Breakfast Club, a retired doctor’s group which meets monthly at UAB, as well as the yearly “Fifty-Sixers” get together at the UAB Medical School annual reunion. He was also active for many years in the Birmingham area Vulcan Power Squadron.
Dr. Patrick Smith leaves four children: Patrick Henry Smith Jr. (Linda) of Vestavia Hills, Ala., Russell Lyons Smith (Davilyn) of Trussville, Ala., Dr. Philip Scott Smith (Jeff Karceski) of Washington, D.C., and Elizabeth Smith Webb (Dr. Michael Webb) of Florence, Ala., as well as a stepson Fitzhugh R. Shaw (Zena) of Pittsburgh, Penn. “Grandaddy Patty” was devoted to his nine grandchildren, Melissa and Kelsey Smith, David and Lauren Smith, Maddie, Patton, Caroline and Margaret Webb, and Sawyer Shaw.
There was nothing that Pat Smith loved more than puttering around at the family’s “River House,” a lake home that he bought for the enjoyment of his grown children and himself on the Warrior River at the Riverwood Fishing and Hunting Club in western Jefferson County. Many of the family got together on an almost weekly basis over the years and decades to swim, boat, water-ski and work on various renovation projects.
The family is immensely grateful to Dr. Graeme Bolger of the Kirklin Clinic, Birmingham, and to the loving help of Hospice of Tennessee Valley and Eldercare Services of Florence, Ala.
Elkins Funeral Home of Florence is assisting the family with final arrangements. A service celebrating the long life of Dr. Smith will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, in the funeral home chapel, led by officiant Susan Sneed. A time of visitation will be from 3 p.m. until service time at the funeral home.
Dr. Smith would like to be remembered by gifts to Samford University, Birmingham, AL or to the Birmingham Chamber Music Society.
