Services for Dr. Fred W. Smith Jr., of Brookhaven, are 11 a.m.Thursday, July 21 at Brookhaven Funeral Home with burial inRiverwood Memorial Park Cemetery.

Visitation is today from 5-8 p.m. at the funeral home.

Dr. Smith, 81, died July 18, 2005, at Beverly Health Care. Hewas born in Poplarville on Jan. 16, 1924, to Fred W. Smith andElsie Pigott Smith.

Dr. Smith began his practice of optometry in Brookhaven thesummer of 1948. He had served as secretary of the MississippiOptometric Association. He retired in 1997. In his earlier years hewas active in First Baptist Church, the Boy Scouts, Little LeagueBaseball, the Kiwanas Club, the Jaycees and the Brookhaven CountyClub. He served in World War II and in the Army for three and ahalf years. He married Miriam Provost Smith on June 12, 1949. Theywere married for 56 years. He was a member of First BaptistChurch.

Preceding him in death were his parents; a special aunt, DixiePigott Ford; his sister and brother-in-law, Elsewood and BillMagee; a brother-in-law, Russell Evans.

Survivors are his wife, Miriam Provost Smith, of Brookhaven; hissons, Fred William Smith III and his wife Karron, Dr. Mark ProvostSmith and his wife, Susan, all of Brookhaven, and Russell BlakeSmith and his wife, Rosie, of Woodstock, Ga.; his grandchildrenElizabeth and Bo Allen, of Brookhaven, Brad and Marybeth Smith, ofHattiesburg, Chad Smith and Craig Smith, both of Brookhaven, BlakeSmith and Christopher Smith, both of Woodstock; hisgreat-grandchildren, Preston Smith, of Hattiesburg, and MollyAllen, of Brookhaven; and his sister, Matty Lynn Evans, of Monroe,La.