GEORGE SMITH
George J. Smith was born on Feb. 5, 1920, in an ambulance on the way to the Cumberland Street hospital in Brooklyn, NY. He passed away peacefully at home on Feb. 2, 2012, three days short of his 92nd birthday.
George was a cartoonist all of his life. He grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and attended Pratt Institute in Manhattan to study drawing. In the early years he sold single panel cartoons to magazines such as Saturday Evening Post and Colliers.
He married Virginia Quinlan and together they had 12 children. In 1952, he created "The Smith Family" Cartoon strip that was based on ideas from his family life at home, satirizing the perils of parenthood and the joys of ice cream. It ran in many newspapers all over the United States. The family of seven moved from New York City in 1951 to Campbell Hall in the country outside of Goshen, NY. Then in 1960, tiring of the snowy New York winters George and Virginia moved their family of 13 out West, first to California, then to Oregon and finally to White Salmon in 1972. They lived on "the farm" on Sanborn Road until 2000 when declining health forced them into town.
George loved to read and he was always reading more than a couple of books. He was an amazing philosopher, dreamer, deeply spiritual, loving, funny, amazing singer, storyteller, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. He was at his best when he could share his ideas with his family. He was preceded in death by his wife Virginia and daughter Virginia Avery and baby Marie Terese.
He is survived by nine daughters, Kathleen Davis, Ellen Crain, Christine Stenberg, Lorraine Allen, Tishy Stein, Carol Triffle, Dolores Predeek, Suzy Quinlan, Barbara Quinlan; one son, George Smith; 44 grandchildren, 66 great-grandchildren, and great-great- grandchildren. Grandson Charley lovingly cared for George in the last year of his life.
Donations in his memory may be sent to World Vision, in care of Tishy Stein, PO. Box 1884, White Salmon,
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