Key points:
- The Rev. Lamar Smith died Sept. 16 at age 99.
- The United Methodist elder began his ministry in 1955 and concluded it in 2020, at age 94.
- He led large churches and held top conference administrative posts but specialized in evangelism.
- Fellow pastors were among those who felt their lives had been changed by friendship with Smith.
If there were a hall of fame for United Methodist clergy, the Rev. Lamar Smith would be in it, no question.
For one thing, he was a super-ager pastor. He began his ministry in 1955 and didn’t fully retire until 2020, well into his 90s.
Through the many years, he led large churches, held top conference administrative posts and served as interim president of a United Methodist college.
But admirers say that what most distinguished Smith was not longevity or a stellar resume. It was how profoundly he influenced others — including fellow pastors — all along the way.
“Lamar invested in my life, and it changed me for the better,” said the Rev. Pat Sparks, who was a young associate minister under Smith from 1984 to 1987.
Smith died Sept. 16, at age 99 and four months. He had outlived nearly all his contemporaries, but on Sept. 22 a large crowd assembled at First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, for his celebration of life service.
The Rev. Tim Bruster, one of the eulogists, asked all who had been baptized or married or brought into the church by Smith to stand. Nearly everyone did.
“What a legacy,” Bruster said.
Lamar Edward Smith was born in 1927 in Jasper, Texas, and grew up in Mineola, Texas, the sixth of eight children in a faithful Methodist family.
At age 17, he joined the Navy, serving stateside as World War II wrapped up. Four older brothers of Smith also served in the military during the war, and in an oral history interview he gave to National World War II Museum, he choked up talking about the toll that exacted on their mother.
During the war Smith felt his call to ministry. He used the GI Bill to attend Texas Wesleyan College (now Texas Wesleyan University) in Fort Worth, where he majored in religious education. He next worked his way through Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.
He’d study for a term then drop out to make money by recruiting students for Texas Wesleyan. As the cycle continued, he married Texas Wesleyan alum Doris Dell Hudgens, with whom he would have three children.
In 1955, Smith interviewed with the Rev. Gaston Foote for an associate minister position at what was then First Methodist Church of Fort Worth. According to a family obituary, Smith admitted to Foote — himself a legendary pastor — that he was still learning to preach and knew little about running a church.
But he said he could get along with people and wanted to walk with them through good times and bad.
“You’re hired,” Foote reportedly said. “I’ll call the bishop.”
Smith served as an associate pastor at the Fort Worth church for more than a decade, helping to bring in, family members recalled, some 5,000 members.
He was there on Nov. 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. That afternoon, as news spread, people started showing up at the church. Smith welcomed them in for prayers and had the organist comfort them with familiar hymns.
“He felt like it was important for the church to play that role, to give them a place to grieve the president,” said son Edward Smith.
From Fort Worth, Lamar Smith would go on to lead churches in Wichita Falls, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Conroe, Texas.
“At each stop along the way, congregations under his leadership saw growth in membership, worship and Sunday school attendance, and an increase in giving that in turn led to increases in budgets for programming and missions both local and worldwide,” the family obituary for Smith said.
Smith later served as a district superintendent and area provost — bishop’s assistant — in the Texas Conference.
At age 70, Smith entered retired status but happily returned to First United Methodist of Fort Worth as an associate pastor. He first oversaw the church’s foundation then in 2003 became associate pastor of evangelism.
That was a perfect fit.
“We called Lamar the hound of heaven because he hounded people, by God’s grace, into the church,” said Bruster, former senior pastor at First United Methodist of Fort Worth.
Smith kept working until age 94. A few years before he finally, fully retired, the Central Texas Conference (now part of the Horizon Texas Conference) honored him by creating the Lamar E. Smith Center for Evangelism, Mission and Church Growth.
First United Methodist of Fort Worth took up a collection to help create the center.
“Raising funds to honor Lamar was about the easiest funds I ever raised,” Bruster said.
Through the decades, Smith remained true to his alma mater. He helped found the Texas Wesleyan alumni association and served as that group’s first president in 1954-55. He was a Texas Wesleyan trustee, with short gaps, from 1968 to 2018.
In 2010 — already in his 80s — Smith became the school’s interim president.
“His life reflected the values at the heart of our Methodist mission, and we give thanks for all he gave us,” said Emily Messer, current president of Texas Wesleyan.
At the celebration of life service for Smith, and in interviews, people noted his accomplishments but stressed how much he meant to them personally.
“He changed my life forever,” said the Rev. C.J. Taylor.
Taylor learned how to be a pastor as Smith’s associate at First United Methodist of Conroe. He wrote UM News a lengthy email elaborating various ways Smith’s instruction and example proved to be, cumulatively, life-altering.
Preaching? Yes, he learned that from Smith. And conflict resolution. And just making people feel seen and listened to.
“I was so impressed by how Lamar would greet and listen to everyone who came to worship,” Taylor said. “He would lean all the way over to greet little children. Many adults said to me their children insisted they attend church. Lamar made it special for everyone, including the youngest worshippers.”
Sparks was another who came to revere Smith while working with him as an associate pastor in Conroe. He and his wife named their son Lamar after Smith (Lamar Sparks has grown up to be an outfielder for the Firefighters team in the Banana Ball Championship League) and had him baptize both their children.
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When Pat Sparks moved on to senior pastor appointments, he could still count on Smith’s counsel.
“If I was in a situation where I needed some guidance, he was only a phone call away,” Sparks said.
Sparks added that he has held on to 33 voicemails from Smith, going back 20 years.
“He would end up saying, ‘I love you and I want to tell you how proud I am of you.’”
The Rev. Martin Leathers was a divinity school student and member of First United Methodist of Fort Worth’s youth ministry staff when Smith was in his last years at the church. Monday lunches with Smith became a tradition, and Leathers said he soaked up the older man’s stories and wisdom.
“He taught me the importance, as simple as it sounds, of being kind,” said Leathers, a student ministries pastor for The Gathering church in St. Louis.
Leathers and his wife gave their son the middle name “Lamar” in tribute to Smith.
The Rev. Casey Orr was another young staff member at First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth when Smith was a senior statesman among the clergy there.
Despite a 57-year age difference, Orr and Smith laughed together a lot. Being around Smith, watching him relate lovingly to people not only in the church but across Fort Worth, furthered Orr’s education in Christian formation.
She felt formed herself.
“I simply don’t know who I would be,” she said during her eulogy at his service, “if he hadn’t been my friend.”
The Rev. Lamar Smith outlived his wife Doris; his second wife, Beverly Sone Elbert; and all his siblings.
He’s survived by his children and their spouses, four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and many other family members.
Hodges is a Dallas-based writer. News media contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
