Kelly Ray Smith, a talented musician, inventor, songwriter and loving father and husband, died in his home of heart failure. It's ironic, because his large heart, quick laugh and love for his friends and family never failed.
Born March 21, 1963, in Enterprise, Ore., to Donnie and Bettie Ann Smith, Kelly moved to Island City, Ore., at a young age when his father, a skilled logger, began working for DMCD Logging. At Island City Elementary School, Kelly found what he would call his best teacher, Mrs. Bowman, who played music and sang with her class an hour every day. That, combined with evenings listening to his father play music with Don Murrell, cemented Kelly's love for music.
Kelly attended Lewiston High School, worked summers logging for his dad and started a band. After high school, he packed his guitar and headed west to Seattle, where he made his living being a musician along with doing odd jobs along the way.
Kelly continued to log in the summers and paid his way through The Evergreen State College in Olympia, where he graduated in 1990 with a bachelor of arts degree, focusing on computer technologies. He used his computer and music talents in the jobs that followed, as a systems engineer for Movietime Entertainment, cable and Internet installer for American Cable Services, tester for Microsoft, computer programmer for Weyerhaeuser and computer programming teacher for Global Business Solutions Inc.
Music stayed Kelly's first love. He designed, built and then served as manager and lead engineer for the WaterPoint Recording and Sound Design studio in Olympia. He played in many bands and recorded fellow musicians in his home studio. If bands weren't filling the house with music, Kelly would be, picking up his guitar for impromptu breakfast sing-alongs with his daughter.
Kelly was a skilled songwriter, a member of the local makers group and was reinventing the pedal steel guitar. He hunted, fished, flew planes, rode motorcycles and loved to have barbecues on his deck.
Kelly is survived by his wife, Susan Zemek; and daughter, Madeleine Smith, both of Olympia; his father, Donnie Smith of Lewiston; sisters Debra (Gene) Wilson of Spokane and Terri (Rick) Skillings of Enterprise, Ore.; brother Travis (Nikki) Goebel of Enterprise; stepmother Carol Smith; and stepsister, Julie (Wayne) Paxton, both of Baker City, Ore.; stepbrother Wade (Katheryn) Hadden of Longview, Wash.; and many nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles.
A memorial service will be at noon Nov. 11 at Heritage Hall at the Thurston County Fairgrounds in Olympia.