Kimball "Doyle" Smith 1928 - 2017

CLAUSEN, SMITH, OLSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 4/12/2017 at 10:21:14

Sioux City Journal
14 February 2017

LAWTON, Iowa | Kimball "Doyle" Smith, 88, of Lawton, passed away Friday, Feb. 10, 2017, at a Sioux City hospital after a short illness.

Services will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Morningside Lutheran Church in Sioux City. The Rev. Paul Andell will officiate. Burial will be in Banner Township Cemetery, Lawton. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m., at Meyer Brothers Morningside Chapel in Sioux City. Online condolences may be sent to www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Doyle was born on Feb. 25, 1928, on his grandparents' farm in Belden, Neb. He was the son of Kimball S. and Bertha (Clausen) Smith. Doyle attended his first three years of country school in Warham, Neb. In 1936, Doyle's family moved to Magnet, Neb., and he attended school there until 1944 when the family moved to Iowa. Doyle graduated from Onawa High School in 1945.

On April 9, 1950, Doyle married Virginia Olson in Lawton. He began farming that year and started feeding cattle in 1958. Doyle bought his first farm in 1965 with the help of a landlord. He was active in managing the farming operation until his retirement in 2015, after 66 years of farming. Doyle's love of farming centered around feeding cattle and his cow-calf operation.

Doyle was ahead of his time with new concepts such as 20-inch rows in 1966. He was the first in the area to have a cab on a tractor. He also was one of the first in this area to convert to the practice of minimum tillage. In 1967, he was featured in Successful Farming magazine as a corn growing innovator. Doyle won several corn growing yield contests.

Doyle coached baseball for minors, majors and midgets in Lawton for 16 years and for the Legion baseball team in Mapleton, Iowa, for two years. While coaching majors, his team won third place in the state tournament in 1971 and won the state championship in 1972. In 1973, the midget team finished as the state champion and in 1974 ended up third in the state tournament.

Doyle was a member of Morningside Lutheran Church.

Survivors include his wife, Virginia of Lawton; his children, Gary Smith, and his wife, Kathy, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Valerie Unkrich and her husband, Stan, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and Gregory Smith and his wife, Deborah, of Jefferson, S.D.; three sisters, Beverly Price of Scottsdale, Ariz., Marilyn Marx of Seattle, Wash., and Lea Rae (John) Petrikas of Sanibel, Fla.; eight grandchildren, Sarah Craft (Matt), Ryan Smith, Lindsay Gallo (Jon), Brendan Unkrich (Brandelle), Angela Ribeiro (Alfonso), Tyson Unkrich, Michael Smith, and Matthew Smith: nine great-grandchildren; and two sisters-in-law.

Doyle was preceded in death by his parents, Kimball and Bertha Smith; a brother-in-law, Jack Marx; a niece, Mari Lea Vela; in-laws, Walter and Lilian Olson; three brothers-in-law; and a sister-in-law.