Mark Eric Smothers

Mark Eric Smothers was born on August 4, 1960. He already had a 3 year old sister April Lynn. We lived in a small rented house on the outskirts of the city, but had a large yard and a wooded hillside to play in. From the very beginning, he liked mechanical things- and would "work" on his tricycle.

He always wanted to help out with everything, his favorite clothes was his Superman T-shirt with a cape I fixed for him. Then he got a baby brother David. He was proud when he could make him toys and watch over him.

When in high school he took guitar lessons, then he attended Central Missouri state University., where he earned his bachelor degree in electricity, electronics, plus taking post grad courses in TV production, stage and stage lighting, and was in the men's chorus. He receieved Straight A's in it all. Mark always helped his grandfather on the cattle farm, etc., through it all.

He was working at a marble factory over one summer- and later took a course in KC for recording, and bought a recorder.

Then he got cancer (we know now that the marble factory was the cause). After a long battle, he was finally in remission, and immediately felt called to write inspirational type music. However, not the ussual type church music. He wanted to inspire non religious people to see the truth. He wrote "Spring Forth" from words he said was inspired directly from God. He believed in the inspiration, since he just sat down and started playing it and singing it all of a sudden from beginning to end in one take.

He established his own label and got copyrights for everything. Since the music industry was in a state of change, he went from casettes to CD's, and no one wanted serious music anymore, it's only gotten worse since. Then Mark gave up on the music business, but was needed at home, his dad was in ill health since he had been hit by a car, and David and I were running his landscape business.

One year after his dad died, he was taking over more things here, when he had a heart attack. His heart stopped 3 times- they put in two stents, and he lay on total like support for 9 days. When they tried to take him off, it didn't work and had to put him back on. But after a long recovery and 2 rehab sessions, he was OK, working hard here at home, raising and preserving our own food. With the farm rented down home, had been getting along fine until now.

When fishing with his best friend, his heart just quit. He had always said "I just want to be two old guys fishing in a boat and keel over, that's the way to go". He did, just too soon.

Funeral Service will be held at 1:00 pm, Friday, October 16th at the Heuser Funeral Home.  Burial will be at the Green Lawn Cemetery.