Mr. Walter Truett Smith of Milam passed away Wednesday, January 5, 2022 in Austin, TX at the age of 84.

Truett was born August 15, 1937 in Milam, TX to Obediah Hillis Smith and Elsa Hofmann Smith. He was born in his grandparents' old farm house. The family moved to Beaumont when Truett was 4 years old.

He loved school from the beginning and took great pride in making good grades. He attended South Park High School and after his graduation commencement, met the love of his life-Linda Tevis. They dated for the next 5 ½ years. They agreed to get married after he finished college and his active duty in the Texas Air National Guard was complete.

He enrolled in Lamar University on a scholarship his high school teacher, Ms. McFarland, helped him get. Surprisingly, she had tried to talk him out of taking a woodshop class that conflicted with trigonometry. She asked him "son, when you go to college what good is that woodshop class going to do for you"? To this day, we still have the mahogany chest of drawers, night stand, dresser and cedar chest that he made in that class. While at Lamar, he was involved in Delta Sigma Pi International Business Fraternity, Lamar Honor Society, Lamar Accounting Association and Phi Kappa Phi national honor society. He graduated from Lamar with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and went to work for the Internal Revenue Service. Shortly after graduation, he joined the Texas Air National Guard and married Linda as soon as his active duty was up.

He worked for the IRS for 14 years in Beaumont until he was selected to be an examination group manager in Houston. During their time in Beaumont, Truett and Linda welcomed two daughters into the family, Julie in 1962 and Stephanie in 1965. Once, in Houston, Truett worked an additional 24 years at the IRS. He retired in January 1998 as the Director's Representative in charge of the Southeast Houston region.

Truett enjoyed hunting quail and dove with his Brittany Spaniel hunting dogs, lazy days at the beach cabin Linda's dad had built, playing dominoes, clearing the woods on their property in East Texas, growing vegetables and resting on the porch swing.

In 1998, he and Linda moved to the country home of their dreams they built back where it all began for Truett in the piney woods of East Texas in Milam, TX.

He is survived by his daughters, Julie Topolski and husband, Leonard of Pearland and Stephanie Carroll and husband, Bob of Austin; and grandchildren, Brandon Topolski, Trevor Topolski, Lauren Carroll and Emily Carroll.

He is preceded in death by his beloved wife of 58 years.

Visitation will be held from 1:00 pm until 2:00pm Friday, January 14th at Starr Funeral Home, 510 Starr St., Hemphill, TX.

Funeral services will begin at 2:00pm in the chapel.

Burial services will follow at Fairmount Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider planting a tree in memory of Truett at arborday.org . (Go to Trees in Memory, make a donation and a tree will be planted in a National Forest in need).