Henry Hunter Smith, age 84, of West Hamlin, WV died Wednesday, December 7, 2005, in a Huntington hospital. Born September 4, 1921, in Pocahontas County, he was the son of the late John Francis and Maryellen Hoover Smith.

He is survived by his wife, the Rev. Nancy H. White; sister, Osa Smith McLaughlin, of Marlinton; brother, Charles E. Smth, of Beckley; daughter, Carol Ann Smith, of Bluefield; step-son, David L. White; two granddaughters. Preceding him in death were four brothers, George C. Smith, James B. Smith, Jack E. Smith, and William S. Smith, and four sisters, Alice Smith Ervin, Annalee Smith Ervin, Marmette Smith Hancock, and Gail Smith Millsap, and his first wife, Helen Dillow Smith.

Hunter spent his childhood in Davis Stuart School, a Presbyterian children's home at Lewisburg. As a teenager, he lived in Bramwell and graduated from Bramwell High School.

He served in the United States Army as a military policeman during World War II, and as a guard at the Potsdam Conference attended by President Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin, Charles deGaulle, and Winston Churchill. Following his Honorable Discharge, he attended McLane Business College, then worked for the N&W Railroad in Bluefield, retiring after 35 years. He then worked as a courier for Smith, Klien Beechum for ten years. He served as a Scout Master for Troop 3 of the Boy Scouts of America, served on the Board of the Bluefield Union Mission, was an officer in the Kiwanis Club, and worked for a variety of civic projects.

He was an active church leader in the United Methodist Church, sang in the choir, was a Sunday School teacher and Superintendent of Sunday School, Chairman of Trustees, and lay leader and delegate to Annual Conference.

He was an avid gardener, grew special tomatoes from seeds and roses, was an accomplished stained glass craftsman, designing a variety of window hangings as well as a stained glass window in the chapel in a Bluefield hospital.

His first wife, HELEN VIRGINIA DILLOW SMITH (1917 - 1999) taught in the Bramwell Grade School in the 1940s.