Ernest Smithson

OTTAWA -- Ernest L. Smithson Jr., 81, of Ottawa, died Sunday, June 1, at his home. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Ottawa Funeral Home with Deacon Ron Rager officiating. Burial will be in Oakwood Cemetery with military rites. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. He was born Sept. 28, 1926, in Streator, to Ernest L. and Etta (Roberts) Smithson Sr. He married Jane Dye on June 21, 1952, in Ottawa. He was an electrician at Union Carbide and then retired from American Hoechst. Ernest assisted in the United States War effort in World War II at the age of 16 by working in the Seneca Shipyards along with his father from 1942 to 1943. The Army-Navy "E" for outstanding production was the highest honor that can be paid to civilians engaged in war work. Seneca produced the LST ships that delivered soldiers to the Normandy beaches on D-Day. Ernest joined the Navy in September 1943 at the age of 17 and began his 10-year military career as an Aviation Bosum's Mate on the USS Franklin. He spent the war years in Panama working with Crash boats. He later served in the Army and then in the Air Force with strategic command. He received the Good Conduct Medal and WWII Freedom Medal. He was a member of the American Legion and Ottawa Moose Lodge. Survivors include his wife; a daughter, Deborah (Daniel) Puetz of Peru; a son, Ernest III (Vickie) of Independence, Mo.; six grandchildren, Amy, Timothy and Jeffrey Puetz and Andrew, Aaron and Amelia Smithson; and a sister, Carole Marincic of Peru. He was preceded in death by his parents; a grandson, Adam Joseph Puetz; and one sister, Eileen Hicks. Pallbearers will be his grandchildren and nephew, Robert Wettering.