Raymond John Smith 1933-2015
CASS LAKE, MN-It is with sadness that we announce the passing of former Indian Life Ministries Board member, Raymond John Smith, 82, who passed away on July 16, 2015, in Phoenix, Arizona after a three-year battle with cancer.
Ray was born on June 10, 1933 at the Indian Health Service in Onigum, Minnesota. An enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, Ray was raised on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Cass Lake, Minnesota.
At the age of 11, Ray surrendered his life to Jesus Christ, beginning a spiritual journey that would become the center of his life. As a teenager, he was a gifted high school athlete and musician. Ray along with his sister Barb, and parents, Irene and Louis Smith, founded the original "Smith Family Quartet," singing and sharing the gospel in English and Ojibwe at churches, conferences, and wild rice and blueberry camps throughout the upper Midwest region.
After high school, Ray attended St. Paul Bible Institute (Crown College). He was featured soloist with the St. Paul Choral Club, under the leadership of Dr. M. Tannehill, traveling extensively throughout the U.S., filling concert halls wherever they went. It was at St. Paul where he met his wife, Margurite Jean French of Toledo, Ohio. Ray and Jean raised their five sons in Cass Lake.
After a brief time working with the Red Lake Nation, he began working with the Public Health Service in Cass Lake, Minnesota. He then accepted a position as coordinator of Talent Search at Bemidji State College (MN). He loved singing baritone as a member of the "Timbertones Barbershop Quartet" in Bemidji, Minnesota and is well remembered for his leading of congregational singing at The Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of Cass Lake. He also loved playing softball in the Bemidji Men's Softball League and was an avid golfer.
In 1971, he accepted the position of president of The Mo-kah-um Indian Bible School in Cass Lake. It was during that time at Mo-kah-um when the next generation of his family's music ministry began.
For most of the 1970s and into the early 80s, the music ministry of "The Smith Indian Family" took them across North America in concerts, radio and television performances, and recordings. Ray also was involved for many years with The Chippewa Bible Broadcast, a Christian radio program in existence for over 40 years with a Native listening audience in the U.S. and Canada. In the ensuing decades, Ray served with CHIEF Inc. in Phoenix; as the director for the Center for Indian Ministries at Oak Hills Fellowship in Bemidji, Minnesota for nine years, and then returned to gospel music with his son, Craig, and family, with Smith Family Ministries. In 2001 he returned to serve on staff of CHIEF Inc., remaining with them until his passing. He was preceded in death by his parents, Louis and Irene Smith, his first wife, Margurite Jean Smith, brother, Myron Smith, and three great-grandchildren (Madeline Elizabeth), (Emma Grace), and (Baby Smith). He is survived by his second wife, Barb Kushman Smith, his sister, Barbara Ann Smith, his five sons, Russ, Gary (Connie), Craig (LaDonna), Scott (Priscilla), and Joel (Paula); a niece (Stephanie) and nephew (Stephen); three step-children (Steve), (Connie) and (Cathy); seven grandchildren (Nizhoni), (Dallas), (Shandiin), (Jessica), (Kristina), (Dezrik), and (Sam); nine step-grandchildren, eight great grandchildren and four step-great grandchildren.
Funeral services were held in the Phoenix area as well as in Cass Lake, with burial in Cass Lake.
