Joel C. Smith's Obituary
Joel Collins Smith, 92, of Winter Haven Florida passed peacefully from this earthly existence on July 1, 2023.
He was born July 29, 1930, in Madison, Florida to Charles Carroll Smith and Mildred Woodward Smith. As a very young child, he moved to Winter Haven and grew up learning the retail business as he helped his family run The Friendly Hardware Store in the newly established downtown. After graduation from Winter Haven High School and a year of service in the Navy, he enrolled in the School of Business Administration at Florida State University and from that day forward Dad's blood ran garnet and gold.
He returned to Winter Haven where he met and married the lovely Barbara Bates. Together they enjoyed a life of raising their three daughters across the state of Florida and in Montgomery, Alabama. Their adventures even took the family to the booming town of Freeport, Grand Bahama Island during the late 1960s where Joel operated the only hardware store on the island. Here, they spent several very special years.
Later in life he would return to his hometown of Winter Haven. Becoming reacquainted with the many friends and faces of his early days brought him great joy. He and his wife, Barbara Henderson Smith, went on to spend 28 happy years together. As a manufacturer's representative, still in the hardware business, Joel knew the state of Florida like the back of his hand. A man of many wonderful stories, who never met a stranger, Dad would regularly come across people with whom he made immediate connections whether it was during a social gathering or a 4-hour shutdown on the Florida Turnpike.
He is predeceased by his wife Barbara, his sister Mildred Woodward Cotton, and brothers Columbus Benjamin Smith II and Charles Carroll Smith Jr. He will be greatly missed by his daughters Barbara Jo Carone (David), Cindy Smith Holland (John), and Sylvia Woodward Smith (Carol, dec.); along with four grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, and extended family members who he treasured and kept in careful contact with through the years.
The Celebration of Life at St Paul's Episcopal Church, Winter Haven, Florida will be Saturday, July 22, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. Donations in lieu of flowers to the Humane Society of Polk County.
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