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John Kenneth Smart
Carrollton &
Farmers Branch
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OBITUARY
 Former
Kilgore News Herald publisher Smart dies
By MITCH LUCAS [email protected] Nov 24, 2020
The Kilgore News Herald has been blessed for decades to have many
talented people come through these doors, to provide the Kilgore area
with very good news and sports coverage.
One of those people was Kenneth Smart, the publisher of the News Herald
from 1978 to 1988.
Smart died on Saturday, at age 88, and services for family members are
scheduled Wednesday at Grove Hill Cemetery in Dallas — there are plans
for a memorial service for friends at a later date.
Kenneth was born on Oct. 6, 1932, in Dallas. He graduated as
valedictorian from R. L. Turner High School in Carrollton and later
earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of North
Texas, working in the summers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the
Carrollton Chronicle.
While pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Texas, he worked
as the Minister of Music and Education at the First Baptist Church of
Georgetown. He accepted a job as a reporter with the Dallas Times Herald
in 1954, but military service soon interrupted his career.
Drafted in 1954, he left the news business and trained at the Army’s
Counterintelligence School in Baltimore, serving there for two years
while writing a history of that school. In 1956, he returned to Dallas,
joining an active reserve unit in Dallas and specializing in strategic
intelligence research on the former Soviet Union’s oil industry. He
continued to serve in the Army Reserve for 21 years before retiring with
the rank of major.
Kenneth was city editor for the Dallas Times Herald in November 1963
when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In that role, he was
responsible for assigning all of the paper’s reporters to cover the
assassination and the subsequent killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack
Ruby, and he recalled spending that entire weekend at the office.
Later, a professional newspaper journal praised the work of the
“33-year-old City Editor” in covering the assassination. Kenneth
complained to his wife about the factual error in the article — he was
only 31 at the time — but she replied that he aged at least two years
over those few days. He continued to serve at the Times Herald for 21
years before purchasing and operating a weekly newspaper in Dallas, the
White Rocker News. In 1978, he joined the Kilgore News Herald and served
as publisher for 10 years before managing newspapers in Alamogordo, New
Mexico and Weatherford.
Kenneth was active in church all his life, serving as a Sunday school
teacher for almost 60 years, including more than 30 years at the First
Baptist Church of Kilgore. He wrote a history of that church and two
books on the history of the Baptist Foundation. He was a talented
musician and played piano regularly for services and revivals. He also
played the tuba in high school, a talent thankfully unknown to most of
his friends. He loved Kilgore and the history of east Texas. He was a
member of the Rotary Club, and after retirement served as a master
docent at the East Texas Oil Museum.
Kenneth was preceded in death by his parents, John Paul and Faye Smart,
and brothers James and David Smart. He is survived by his wife of almost
67 years, Betty Burns Smart; children Kathy Bethune and husband Gary
Bethune, and Scott Smart and wife Susan Smart; grandchildren Sara
McLaughlin and husband Callan McLaughlin, Rachel Bethune, and Mary Anne
and Robert Smart; great-grandchildren Camden and Myla McLaughlin; sister
Eugenia Childress; and sisters-in-law Janice Smart and Bonnie Smart. |
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