bailey@gomemphis.com
By A. J. Wolfe
The body of driver's license examiner Katherine Smith is carried to a waiting hearse following her funeral at the Family Funeral Care Summer Avenue Chapel Saturday.
Posted on 02/18/2002 10:28:39 AM PST by archy
Mourners remember the good deeds of license examiner, not how she died
By Clay Bailey
bailey@gomemphis.com
By A. J. Wolfe
The body of driver's license examiner Katherine Smith is carried to a waiting hearse following her funeral at the Family Funeral Care Summer Avenue Chapel Saturday.
Mourners filled the Family Funeral Care chapel Saturday to talk about the good deeds and Christian life of Katherine Smith, balancing the publicity surrounding her fiery death last week and the charge that she sold fraudulent driver's licenses.
About 175 people created a standing-room-only arrangement in the chapel, at times swaying and singing along with hymns and testimonials.
"We're not here to remember how she died," said Rev. L. F. Self of Great Ebenezer Baptist Church. "She requested a lively funeral. . . . We came to remember how she lived."
Smith, a 49-year-old state driver's license examiner, was found burned to death in a 1992 Acura Legend after it veered off U.S. 72 in Fayette County in the early morning hours of Feb. 10. Authorities said she died from inhaling the flames from a fire started with the help of an accelerant.
There are questions about connections between her death and federal charges of fraudulently obtaining a Tennessee driver's license against her and five co-defendants. Smith was accused of conspiring to illegally provide licenses to the five men, some of whom were in the country illegally.
The six were arrested Feb. 5 at the testing center on Summer after the transaction. Smith, an examiner for nine years, was released on her own recognizance and was to appear in federal court the day after the discovery of her body alongside the highway.
Smith's family members declined to talk to the media Saturday either at the funeral home or burial at Memphis Memory Gardens. And there were few references to the matter during the 45-minute service.
"While others are speculating or wondering about what's in the background . . . I know how she lived," Self said. "She was a child of God."
Among those attending the service were a group of state driver's license examiners in their uniforms.
Mourners began arriving more than an hour before the 11 a.m. service in the chapel at 4925 Summer. There were hugs and well wishes to friends and family.
Near the start all the pews were full, and an extra room in the back of the chapel quickly turned into an overflow of people standing against the wall.
There were hymns and poems, Scripture readings and acknowledgments for the well wishes shown to the family.
While the mood at times was somber, there also were moments when it seemed like a celebration. A solo brought the crowd to a hand-waving, clapping display of joy with hallelujahs and amens added for verbal support.
Self, decked in a red sports coat, took swigs of bottled water and wiped his brow as he recalled how Smith helped take care of sick family members and her involvement in the church. He said when he preached a sermon several weeks ago about how this year should be better than 2001, he had no idea he would deal with Smith's death.
"Little did I know that in 2002, we were going to lose our best member," Self said. ". . . Little did I know we would lose a precious stone like (Smith).
"There's so much speculation, so much mysticism and mystery surrounding the death of our sister, but there is no mystery of how she lived."
- Clay Bailey: 529-2393
February 17, 2002
As Ricki Lee Jones sang, "There ain' no such thing as Easy Money".
Unless you're run down by one of their bus driver's with a phony license in a hurry to get back to his mosque.
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