Obituary – Shirley Katherine Smith
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Shirley Katherine Smith, daughter of the late Harold and Agnes Bradley, passed away May 29 after a brief stay in Piedmont Health Care Center, Piedmont, Alabama. She was 86.
Smith grew up in Missouri and after graduation from high school she worked as a secretary for the Fisher Body division of General Motors assembly plant in Kansas City and later was a courtroom deputy for 23 years in the Federal Court, Western District of Missouri. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Blue Springs, Missouri, where she volunteered one day per week in the office.
As a youth she learned to ride horses and became a life-long fan of the American Saddlebred. In fact, Smith was honored with the 2006 United Professional Horsemen’s Association (UPHA) Associate Member Award. She was a longtime secretary of that group.
Smith had horses with many of Missouri’s top trainers over the years, including Howard Roberts, Sug Utz, Dave Shocklee, Kent Mead, Jerry Cook, Virgil Helm, and Ron Hulse. Among her noted steeds was CH The Champagne Tiger who would go on to be a world’s champion.
The American Saddlebred world was her life and she gave tirelessly to it. In addition to the UPHA Associate Members, she was extremely active in the local ASHA Charter Club (Mid America Saddlebred Club) for 15 years, and in 2000 and 2001 co-chaired the American Royal Horse Show with Sally Jackson.
Smith will be remembered for living a great life of service to everything she was passionate about, including judges and the court system and the American Saddlebred horse and its community.
Survivors include a son, David and his wife Donna (Kerns) of Anniston, Alabama; a special friend, Marvin Rinne of Blue Springs, Missouri; a cousin, Koral Ford of Carrollton, Missouri; and many friends in the greater Kansas City area.
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