Jul 21, 2002 4 min read

These days, many people are looking for the secret to a long, healthy, happy life – but a 92-year-old Clarksville man says the secrets to a long, happy life are found in the ancient scriptures of the Bible. “The good Lord, he’s the one that kept me this far, and he keeps me going on,” he said.

And in his ripe, old age, Smith does keep going.

– He gardens and maintains a greenhouse of flowers in his backyard.

– He serves as a trustee at the Pitgas First Baptist Church.

– He a;sp visits friends at local senior citizen centers in Greene and Washington counties.

– He takes friends on errands to doctor appointments, shopping and even to the airport, when needed.

His daughter, Hollis Batista, a Beth-Center Elementary School teacher who lives in Bethel Park said, her father has “always been a reliable source of support and help to the local community.”

The 1929 Redstone High School graduate said he is the last survivor of a class of 82 students.

“They’ve all passed on,” he said.

It was his former classmates that got him started visiting the senior citizen centers. Smith said he started out visiting classmates and, since their passing, he has continued his trips to the centers to visit friends who look forward to seeing him.

Smith has faithfully visited his elderly friends, many of whom are younger than he, every Tuesday for the past 12 years

“I’m the oldest one. I have a lot of friends there. I do it because I like to do it (visit),” he said.

Smith said he has been very blessed.

After working 41 years in the Clyde coal mine, supporting his wife, the late Mary Ann Smith and three children, Smith is still in good health.

“I have a blessing; I have a good appetite, and I can still drive and go anywhere I want to go,” he said.

“The Lord’s been good to me. He gave me a long life. I’m fairly healthy and I have a sharp brain. There’s nothing wrong with my mind.”

Smith is well aware of current events and world happenings. Graduating in the year that the television first went on sale and Warner Brothers debuted the first completely talking feature-length picture, Smith said he has seen a lot of changes in his life – but he still sees room for improvement.

“The world has advanced a lot more since I was born. It’s getting better little by little, but there needs to be a little more,” he said.

That “little more” he said can be found by looking back to the good old days. As the world continues forward in its advancement, Smith says people need to take a look back and borrow some techniques from the past.

“We need to put prayer and Bible-reading back into the schools,” he said.

Smith said he believes that would help to put an end to the string of recent murders committed by teens in schools and ease the increasing violence and drug abuse among teens.

Smith also said teachers need to be given the authority to discipline students again and parents should not be condemned for spanking their children.

“You should be able to give your child a whipping. That’s what they need, and they will come out right,” he said.

Smith said he corrected his own children, the late Lee Martin; Donald Smith, a retired Air Force serviceman who lives in Alamagordo, N.M., and Batista, and they all turned out great.

He said he is very proud of his children and has always put his family above all things and enjoys spending time with them, especially his three grandchildren, Mellisa Smith of Texas, Malik Smith of New Mexico and Christopher Edmonds of Irwin.

Smith’s over-all advice to living a long happy life is succinct: “Do the best you can at all times and help your neighbors at all times. All that comes from the Bible. If you do at least half of it, you’re doing good. I must be doing something right; I’m still here.”