Longtime resident Judy Ann (Finch) Smith who was born on February 13, 1939, to Arlise and Vernie Finch in Kingman Arizona died on Sunday, January 24, 2021 due to Covid-19 complications.
Her father’s family arrived in Kingman Arizona in 1921 in an old Model-T leaving the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico to start a new life in Kingman. The Elks Club and Courthouse were already here, but there were very few houses. What is now Topeka used to be the old Highway 66. It came down through Slaughter House Canyon and down that way. Judy’s father Arlise attended grades 3rd and 4th in the Little Red School House while his father went to work for the railroad. As a young adult Arlise went back and forth from Kingman to Phoenix living and working were the jobs took him. In 1930 he met and married his beautiful wife Vernie and the two moved to Kingman in 1932.
Judy came into this world on February 13, 1939, to a little town called Kingman Arizona. The country was just recovering from the great depression and she was only 6 months old when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the beginning of World War II. At age seven, Judy’s father went into the service station business in 1946 in Kingman, Arizona. It was a Texaco station up on the hill next to the City café and he owned and operated it for 25 years. As a young pioneer family, they witnessed many events over the years as Kingman grew and changed with the times. Other than a few growing pains, life was pretty simple in Kingman. Families spent a lot of time together.
Judy has shared stories about her life growing up in this small town of Kingman. One particular story she shared with us is when she was about 12 years old she was standing on her front porch of her home on Spring Street and watching the glow in the sky coming from Las Vegas and her father telling her to get in the house. And of the many times she and her school mates would be at Palo Christi Elementary School out on the play ground playing or gathering with their teacher around the flag pole to say the pledge of allegiance and the sky would glow over the top of them. We can only imagine what that sight looked like. Many people in the area were delighted in watching the mushroom clouds spring up beyond the mountains. It was the middle of the Cold War, and the federal government was engaged in a nuclear testing program in Las Vegas. People were charmed by the beauty of the orange glow; the atomic explosions that lit up the sky! The Nevada Test Site is only a 135 miles away from Kingman Arizona. For approximately 12 years, the U.S. performed 100 atmospheric tests at the Nevada Test Site. Judy stated at that time, no one in Kingman knew the impact this testing would have on all of them for the rest of their lives. Many families and friends have died from cancer as a result.
Judy had many childhood friends that lived on cattle ranches in the 1950s and she talks about the wonderful times she spent with Danielle Stephens riding on the school bus and arriving at their ranch outside of Wikieup for the weekend. They used to swim in the Cofer’s hot springs. Judy remembered how the ranch hands would come in and how much she admired Danielle’s mother (Jena Lee Bishop) for being able to prepare wonderful homemade meals for 17 plus hungry ranch hands on a daily bases.
Judy graduated from Mohave County High School in May of 1957 and attended and received her certificates from Greg’s business college in Phoenix. Judy was going to school and working at the State Theater on the weekends when she met the love of her life Clarence Smith. The only problem was he was engaged to another at the time. Judy sent him away, only to have him return no longer engaged and the two married on August 1, 1957 at the First United Methodist Church in Downtown Kingman.
Judy worked for the State Theater, Corky Pigs, Valley National Bank, for Roy Dunton at Dunton Motors, State Farm, Arizona Music, various doctor offices and the hospital. Judy was part of the young girls who were transported by school bus to help serve the actors Jeff Chandler, Dan Duryea, and Jane Russell who was starring in the movie Foxfire filmed in 1955 in Oatman, and she was very excited to get their autographs.
On July 5, 1973, she was off work from the hospital the day of the Doxel Explosion. Clarence, Judy, and their daughter were at the Ranch Market on Andy Devine/Route 66 when the explosion occurred, and the heat was so intense it was coming through the open window of the Ford pickup they were in. They quickly loaded up as many of the injured people in the back of their truck as they could and took them to the hospital. Judy stated it was awful. She spent the rest of the day at the hospital packing burn victims in ice. We lost 14 wonderful men that day including Alan Hansen who was the class president of 1957. It was a sad, sad day for Kingman.
Asked about the growth of Kingman from downtown to hilltop, she stated the first 20 homes were built on Ricca Drive and then the next 20 homes were built and ended at our home on Van Marter Drive. Bill Shuffler and Ed Curly were the land developers in this area and who were very instrumental in building up the community. The Interstate 40 changed everything. The box stores opened, the hospital moved and all the land was subdivided. Elmer Butler was one of our first big land developers who was selling land for $395.00. He advertised it as $10 down and $10 dollars a month. Judy said she doesn’t think we have progressed that much. She said we had more shopping in Downtown Kingman because progress killed progress. The box store closed the family businesses that everyone was working at. Her Dad Arlise Finch said someday you will see Kingman grow more than what you want it to grow because of the railroad.
Judy Smith most proud accomplishments was as a wife, a homemaker, mother of two, grandmother, great grandmother, and being a member of the Methodist Church her whole life. Judy was a faith-a-row girl, a rainbow girl; she volunteered with Girl Scouts and was a Boy Scout leader, belonged to Beta Cigna Phi Sorority and belonged to the Kingman Cutups Square Dancing club. April Gross introduced Judy to Pioneer Daughters in 1996 and Judy has served as a Vice President and President for about five years and continued to be an active member. She served on the class reunion committee for years and even hosted the first 10-year class reunion in her back yard when she lived on Van Marter Drive and everyone really had a good time. Judy received the Women Making History Award in 2018 in the category of lifetime contributions to her community.
Judy is survived by her sister Darlene (Bob) Maher, Brother in-law Raymond (Elise) Smith, son Robert Wayne (Cheryl) Smith, daughter Lorri (Mike) Jackson, Grandsons Brandon (Shay) Smith, Johnathon (Kristi) Fensterbush and Granddaughters Nichole (Travis) Hood and Lacey Jackson, great grandchildren Jadyn Lehn, Asten Lehn, Briana Asplin, Sahirah Fensterbush, Kiersten Vaughn, Kaden Vaughn, Tage Helm, and great, great granddaughter Zora Haines, and many beloved cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. Judy is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Clarence (Pee Wee) Smith, brother in-law Jim Smith, sister in-law Gladys Terry, and sister in-law Opal Whalen along with her mother and father Arlise and Vernie Finch.
Grave site services will be held at Mountain View Cemetery on February 2, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers please donate to the Mohave Museum, Kingman Cancer Care Unit, or the Joan and Dianna Hospice House.
Judy stated she always loved Kingman and she never wanted to leave. She was always happy about Kingman and never wished for anything more than what was here. She never wanted to live anywhere else. Judy stated I lived a pretty simple life; I was not what you called a fancy person. I have never been fancy in my life and could get by with the simple things in life. As long as we paid our bills and had food on the table we didn’t get too interested in other things. Her words for future generation “Is to take good care of each other”.
