Funeral services for Willie Archie Smith are to be held Saturday, July 7, in the Mt. Heroden M. B. Church at 12 p.m., with the Rev. Kevin Winters officiating; interment shall follow in the Cedar Hill Cemetery under the direction of W. H. Jefferson Funeral Home. There will be a visitation held on Friday, July 6, in the funeral home from 5 to 7 p.m.

Willie Archie Smith passed away on Tuesday, June 26, in Aurora, Illinois, following a brief illness. He was 73.

Willie A. Smith was born March 18, 1945, in Warren County to the late Jones Amos and Josie B. Smith. He attended Warren County Schools. He confessed Christ and was baptized at the New Community Baptist Church under the leadership of servant George Rayford, of Aurora, Illinois.

He was preceded in death by his father Jones (Baby Ray) Amos, his mother and father James and Josie B. Jackson, Sr., his sister Stella Jackson-Burns, nephew Roy Calvin Brown, Jr., aunt Grace Newman, and grandmother Virgie Newman.

He leaves to cherish his memory Albirda Marshall his life long companion, of Aurora, Illinois; two sons, Tyrone (Tasha) Jones and Nicholas LeSure of Aurora, Illinois; two children he raised as his own, Jeff Potts and the late Steve Potts of Aurora, Illinois; two granddaughters, Shana Jones and Sabrina Cooper of Aurora, Illinois; a great granddaughter, E’Brina Smith of Aurora, Illinois; five sisters, Ora Carson, Gertrude (Carl) Williams, Janie Thomas, Lynda (Carl) Jackson-Smith, all of Vicksburg, and Annie (Preston) Jordan of Kinston, North Carolina; two brothers, James Jackson, Jr. of Vicksburg and Charlie (Mollie) Jackson of Texarkana, Texas; a great aunt, Ora Walker and an uncle, Ln (Valor) Williams of Vicksburg and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and other relatives and friends including the Walker, Amos, Anderson, Brisco, Green, Prentiss, Williams, Smith, Fisher, Tribble, Brown, Hall and Ivory families, all of Vicksburg, and the Marshall and Potts families of Aurora, Illinois.