Willard C. Smith, 92, of 205 Southeast Service Road, Southern Pines died Tuesday.

No services will be held and the family has requested no flowers be sent.

Bill Smith was a native of Plainfield, Vermont and graduated from high school there in 1942. He was the first all-state basketball player from this small town. He was the most valuable player in the Vermont state tournament in 1942. The Plainfield team had finished as the runner-up to the state championship in the previous two years.

Bill Smith was proud to be a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He entered Vermont Junior College in Montpelier, VT on a basketball scholarship in 1942. But, shortly after starting college with the U.S. involvement in World War II, he enlisted in Naval Air Corps in December of 1942.  He enlisted in the regular Navy late in 1943 and served in the military until his discharge in 1946. He worked on Navy ships in the South Pacific in a combat zone during World War II.
 
As the U.S. became involved in the Korean War, he was called back into the Navy in January of 1948 and again served in the Navy until March of 1953. All together, he was in the Navy for eight years.
 

Bill lived and worked in several towns in Vermont including Plainfield, Danville and St. Johnsbury prior to being called back into the Navy.

He worked as a publisher's representative for the Curtis Publishing Company in Vermont and moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1960. He began working for Fawcett Publishing Company after moving to North Carolina and subsequently manager the Armstrong News Company in Winston-Sales, NC in 1975.

He retired in 1979 and lived for a number of years in Huntsville, Alabama. Bill and his wife Helen moved to Sanford and Southern Pines, NC for the last several years.

Bill Smith is survived by his wife of more than 70 years, Helen Russell Smith, and their children Ralph Smith of Destin, Florida and Cheryl Merritt of Sanford, NC. He also has two grandchildren, Ian Smith of Jacksonville, FL and David Merritt in Sanford, NC.

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