Smith, Tom

SMITH, BECKER

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 5/3/2007 at 12:28:02

Funeral Services Today.
Once a Circus Trouper,
Tom Smith dead at 83.

Funeral services for Thomas L. "Tom" Smith, 83, one of Maquoketa's most beloved and colorful figures, will be held Thursday at 2 p.m., in the Haylock-O'Hara Funeral Home here. The Rev. J.Chandler Adams, pastor of the Maquoketa United Church of Christ, will officiate and interment will be in Mt. Hope cemetery.
Mr. Smith died Monday morning in his home at 411 East Judson Street. Member of a formerly widely known and extensively traveled husband-and-wife circus team, "Tom" and his late wife, Katherine, were long known as Maquoketa's "circus couple" until their retirement about 30 years ago.
Mr. Smith was born Apr. 18, 1879, at Nashua, Ia., the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Smith. He attended the Dubuque Public Schools and on Apr. 14, 1903, married Katharine Becker of Maquoketa. For the next 30 years, "Tom and Kate" traveled from early spring to late fall with various circuses. They spent winters in their Maquoketa home.
Upon retiring from the circus, Mr. and Mrs. Smith returned to Maquoketa where they assisted Mrs. Smith's late mother, Mrs. Anna Becker, operate the nursing home Mrs. Becker had established as the city's first. At Mrs. Becker's death they assumed full management of the home."Tom" was a member of Helion Masonic lodge, Tancred Commandery, Knights Templar, Bathcol Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons, Maple Leaf Chapter of the Eastern Star(O.E.S.), the DeMolay Consistery in Clinton and the Kaaba Shrine in Davenport.
He was the last member of his family; preceding him in death were his parents, his wife, two sisters and two brothers. Mrs. Smith died Mar. 7, 1958.
Smith's circus career began with the once famous Beach and Bowers minstrel show of Maquoketa. Later, with the circus, he and his late brother Harry, did tumbling and acrobatic acts. Following Tom's marriage, Mrs. Smith trained for her aerial performances-first as a tight rope walker, then in an iron jaw act.
When injuries from a fall prevented Mrs. Smith from continuing as an aerialist, the Smiths developed a dog, pony and monkey act so popular with "big top" audiences that they were soon the featured husband-wife team.
(Jackson Sentinel, October 11, 1962.)