1936 - 2016
Wayne passed away on October 28th, 2016 at the North Okanagan Hospice House in Vernon, BC after a courageous battle with cancer.
Wayne was born to Florence and Jack Smith in their home in Nanton, AB on August 18, 1936. He was the youngest of five children. His father died when Wayne was 15 and the following spring he quit school and went to work to help support his mother. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy when he was 17 and traveled to many places around the world including Greece, Italy, Spain, Panama, Jamaica and various ports in the US and Canada. After he left the Navy he went to work at the Anchor P Ranch in Nanton, AB where he met Virginia McBee. The couple married in 1958 and Wayne started working in a retail lumber yard to provide for the family. He was subject to transfers and moved so often that the family lived in all four western provinces within two years. Wayne finally settled in Prince George, BC in 1974 where he franchised a Beaver Lumber store and finished raising his family with Virginia. He worked there until he retired in 1990 to his hobby farm in Salmon Valley.
Community was important to Wayne and he was a volunteer fire fighter, was in the Kinsmen Club in several places across the prairies and was also in the Lions Club. He enjoyed travelling with Virginia and they went across Canada and the US in addition to spending several winters in Arizona in later years. He loved to camp and fish and enjoyed flying model airplanes and driving his remote control cars.
Wayne is survived by his devoted wife of 58 years, Virginia, his five children, Murray (Lei) Smith, Joy Smith, Jim Smith, Laurie Hunt (Jim Vezeau) and Heather (Bill) Crowdis, his eight grandchildren, Sheldon, Nolan, Evan (Sam), Autumn, David, Shanna, Teagan and James, and his six great-grandchildren, Ethan, Jake, Alex, Erik, Marcus and Hayden.
The family would like to thank Dr. Screen, the Community Nurses of Armstrong and the fantastic staff of the Hospice House for all of their help in caring for Dad. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the North Okanagan Hospice Society.
A Celebration of Life will be held for Wayne on Saturday, November 5, 2016 at the Armstrong Bible Chapel (2145 Rosedale Avenue, Armstrong) at 11:00am. Expressions of sympathy may be forwarded to the family at www.MyAlternatives.ca
Cremation arrangements entrusted to ALTERNATIVES FUNERAL & CREMATION SERVICES® Armstrong 250-546-7237 & Vernon 250-558-0866