Remembering Vasco Smith

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - An "A-list" of mourners crammed into Metropolitan Baptist Church to pay their last respects to former Shelby County Commissioner and Memphis civil rights pioneer, Vasco Smith.

The tributes have rolled in all week long for the family of Vasco Smith. Most have solemnly praised his character, conviction and devotion to fighting for freedom and equality alongside his wife, Maxine.

Yet on this day of final goodbyes, we were reminded of the sparkling personality of a man who also knew how to find the joy in life.

If it were possible for a man to attend his own funeral, then the late Vasco Smith, would have greatly enjoyed his.

Memphis jazz star, Kirk Whalum, provided a musical backdrop before the services began. The aisles of the Metropolitan Baptist Church were brimmed with the kind of fellowship and goodwill the civil rights pioneer would have truly appreciated.

Political figures, civic leaders, entertainers, artists, academies, black and white, friends and foes, for at least the length of the 90-minute "home-going" ceremony, all seemed at home with each other, proud to just be recognized as simply a "friend of Vasco and his adoring widow, Maxine."

"I think you saw the reflection of the dream that they invested so much in, and we've come a long way in race relations, and the seed was planted by individuals like Vasco and Maxine, who were willing to take the risk without reservation," says Rev. LaSimba Gray.

What also made the occasion more like a party, than an exercise in mourning, were the upbeat anecdotal stories told about Smith as a devoted husband, a jazz lover and his willingness just to be a good neighbor to another young couple, who moved in next door from Mississippi 30 years ago.

"We moved in. Everything we had was in the back of a pick-up truck, which means that everything we needed I had to borrow from Vasco. A hammer. Screwdriver. Plunger. He was my hardware store," says AC Wharton, Shelby County Mayor.

"You could be fat or thin. Pretty or ugly. And he could flirt with you better than any man alive. And make you feel special, "says Jocelyn Wurzburg.

Those who paid homage were reminded through those stores and more of what made Vasco Smith so special. It was the fact he never acted that way, whether he was staring at the end of Billy-club during a civil rights protest, receiving an award, or serving as a strident voice for the underprivileged as a Shelby County Commissioner.

"He could have lived a comfortable life. He was in an excellent profession. As a dentist, he could have been independent but he chose to fight for working people and families and he never got disconnected from those roots. That made him the great man that he was," says Joseph Kyles.

Yet at the end of what had been a celebration of one life, we were sadly reminded that life will go on without Vasco for another dear life.

"Oh, gosh. I'm overwhelmed. It just tells me what a wonderful husband I had. I miss him so much," says Maxine Smith, Vasco's widow.