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Vasco Smith remembered as civil rights leader, public servant By Michael Lollar (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal Originally published 04:06 p.m., October 2, 2009 Updated 04:06 p.m., October 2, 2009
“His voyage was plagued with much peril, but he persisted,” Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton said today in a funeral tribute that compared civil rights veteran Vasco Smith with 15th century explorer Vasco de Gama.
De Gama left Portugal in 1497 on an uncharted search for a sea route to India. Smith set out at an early age in an uncharted search for a “route from slavery to freedom,” Wharton said.
Mike Maple/The Commercial Appeal
Hundreds turned out to pay respects to the late Vasco Smith, Jr. today at his funeral at Metropolitan Baptist Church.
Mourners at the noon funeral service for Smith filled the pews of the 1,500-seat sanctuary of Metropolitan Baptist Church.
From musicians to politicians to friends and neighbors, they came to celebrate Smith’s lifetime of civil rights activism, his 21-year role as a crusading public servant and his 56 years as partner to wife and civil rights heroine Maxine Smith.
As he arrived prior to the funeral service, Memphis Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery said, “I stand here today on the shoulders of Vasco Smith. I would not be mayor if not for Vasco Smith.”
The audience was filled with politicians from former Shelby County mayors Bill Morris and Jim Rout to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen.
Absent was Cohen’s rival for the congressional seat, former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton. “I think a few people took notice,” said Rev. Samuel Kyles, one of many civil rights leaders who came to pay tribute.
The audience also was filled with musicians, especially those who shared Smith’s love of jazz. Jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum played a tribute with Rhodes College jazz guitarist John Bass of “The Shadow of Your Smile.”
Whalum said that for Smith “music was kind of like the blood that flowed through his body. It was far more than entertainment. It had to do with the history of his people and this country.”
Former Stax Records songwriter-singer David Porter, a one-time neighbor of the Smiths, also was in the congregation.
Smith, 89, died Monday after a brief illness. A dentist by profession, he entered politics in 1973 in a race for a seat on the old Shelby County Quarterly Court. He retired from politics in 1994 but remained active behind the scenes and as a board member of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP.
Vasco Smith remembered as civil rights leader, public servant
ReplyDeleteBy Michael Lollar (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Originally published 04:06 p.m., October 2, 2009
Updated 04:06 p.m., October 2, 2009
“His voyage was plagued with much peril, but he persisted,” Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton said today in a funeral tribute that compared civil rights veteran Vasco Smith with 15th century explorer Vasco de Gama.
De Gama left Portugal in 1497 on an uncharted search for a sea route to India. Smith set out at an early age in an uncharted search for a “route from slavery to freedom,” Wharton said.
Mike Maple/The Commercial Appeal
Hundreds turned out to pay respects to the late Vasco Smith, Jr. today at his funeral at Metropolitan Baptist Church.
Mourners at the noon funeral service for Smith filled the pews of the 1,500-seat sanctuary of Metropolitan Baptist Church.
From musicians to politicians to friends and neighbors, they came to celebrate Smith’s lifetime of civil rights activism, his 21-year role as a crusading public servant and his 56 years as partner to wife and civil rights heroine Maxine Smith.
As he arrived prior to the funeral service, Memphis Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery said, “I stand here today on the shoulders of Vasco Smith. I would not be mayor if not for Vasco Smith.”
The audience was filled with politicians from former Shelby County mayors Bill Morris and Jim Rout to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen.
Absent was Cohen’s rival for the congressional seat, former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton. “I think a few people took notice,” said Rev. Samuel Kyles, one of many civil rights leaders who came to pay tribute.
The audience also was filled with musicians, especially those who shared Smith’s love of jazz. Jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum played a tribute with Rhodes College jazz guitarist John Bass of “The Shadow of Your Smile.”
Whalum said that for Smith “music was kind of like the blood that flowed through his body. It was far more than entertainment. It had to do with the history of his people and this country.”
Former Stax Records songwriter-singer David Porter, a one-time neighbor of the Smiths, also was in the congregation.
Smith, 89, died Monday after a brief illness. A dentist by profession, he entered politics in 1973 in a race for a seat on the old Shelby County Quarterly Court. He retired from politics in 1994 but remained active behind the scenes and as a board member of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP.
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