Edwin Alonzo Smith

Born in Baton Rouge on Feb. 22, 1917, Mr. Smith died Friday, Feb. 19, 2010, at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. He would have been 93 today. He was a graduate of Baton Rouge High School and an Eagle Scout. He held bachelor's and juris doctor degrees from LSU and practiced law in Baton Rouge for more than 55 years. He was drafted Into the U.S. Army before Pearl Harbor and graduated from Officer Candidate School shortly after the outbreak of World War II. As a junior officer, he was an OCS instructor and was later assigned to the quartermaster corps of the U.S. First Army, then involved in the buildup of forces for the invasion of Europe. He participated in the Normandy invasion and the push across Europe to Germany, including the Battle of the Bulge. He was a charter member of St. Thomas More Catholic Church and active in the Military Officers Association of America, the Retired Officers Association, the Sons of the American Revolution, Founders of New Orleans, Founders of Mobile, plus other civic and heritage organizations. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Jo Marguerite Coullard Smith; parents, Edwin A. Smith Sr. and Bianca Droz Smith; and sisters, Fabian Sue Smith Chaney and Agnes Lenore SmIth Grosz. He is survived by his wife, Rosemary Philippe Blanchard Smith; brother and sister-in-law, Louis G. Smith and Darlene Palmer Smith; son and daughter-in-law, E. A.Smith III and Diane E. Smith; daughter and son-in-law, Tammeryn Smith Dial and Jack T. Dial; five grandchildren, Jonathan Thomas Dial, Elizabeth Adele Dial, Norman Stephen Smith, David Benjamin Smith and Angela Rehn Gearhart; as well as two stepdaughters, Cathy Blanchard Woosley and Sheree Blanchard Carter and their families. Visiting at Rabenhorst Funeral Home East, 11000 Florida Blvd., on Monday, Feb. 22, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Visiting at St. Thomas More Catholic Church on Tuesday, Feb. 23, from 10 a.m. until religious service at 11 a.m. Interment in Roselawn Memorial Park.