Services for Willie Smith will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Kings Empowerment Center with Rabbi Robert Devine officiating. Burial will follow at Cedar Hill Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 until 6 p.m. Thursday at Dillon-Chisley Funeral Home and Friday at the center from 10 a.m. until the service.

Mr. Smith died Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012, at River Region Medical Center. He was 72.

He was a retired auto mechanic.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Lee “Skit” Smith; two sons, Willie Smith Jr. and Robert Earl “Tip” Smith; his father, Otis Smith; two brothers, Louis Smith and J.C. Smith; and one sister, Bertha Searcey.

He is survived by three sons, Milton Jefferson and Terry Ross, both of Vicksburg, and Quincy Smith of Arlington, Texas; two stepsons, Benard Jefferson and William Jefferson, both of Vicksburg; eight daughters, Melvina Jones, Joyce Smith, Rosetta Smith, Sandra Smith and Sharon Dotson, all of Vicksburg, Mary Watson of Natchez and Sherrie Tanner and Cherrie Tanner, both of Monroe; two stepdaughters, Sadie Bush and LeeEster Bridges, both of Vicksburg; three brothers, Leon Smith and Johnnie Smith, both of Vicksburg, and Otis Smith of Stockton, Calif.; three sisters, Vanessa Gleese of Jackson, Joannie Smith of Vicksburg and Naomi Smith of Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan; and a number of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends and other relatives, including Joe Jefferson of Vicksburg and Glenn Jefferson of Los Angeles.