SMITH, ANNELL (1932 ~ 2023). The following is an obituary for Annell Smith, spouse of Robert Shearn Smith, former state district judge. The obituary was provided by Waltrip Funeral Directors of Houston.

Annell Smith is the wife who made her man King: King of the house, King of the Courts, King of the lands where she was born. Annell was born on November 26, 1932 in the Sun Oilfields. Her father, Pop Schaefer was a man's man who came off his farm in the depression to take work as a roustabout in the Sun Oilfields. With 5 girls and a brother, everything revolved around her Dad. He was a hard worker and a hard drinker like the rest of the germans in the community. They were the only family that owned their house in the fields, all the others lived in the Sun Oil tenement homes. Theirs was a small house just down the road from Sun Oil, and in the middle of nowhere. Her mother, Alvina, was from a well to do educated german family. In fact Alvina's family was disgusted when Alvina (18) ran off with Albert (Pop) who they considered a cowboy. She could have had anybody, but the dashing good looking cowboy caught her attention at one of the Saturday night dances, and that was that.

North Texas is ruled by Southern Baptist and South Texas is ruled by the Devoted Catholics with 2 of the middle hill counties out of 264 counties in Texas belonging to the German Lutherans. Every Sunday without fail, Alvina took the children to the Prairie Hill Lutheran Church where Albert was the subject of many sermons. He always worked the farm on Sunday, telling his neighbors he would listen to them preaching the bible if they could do so while helping him tend to his horses, cattle, hay and corn. He also enjoyed hunting on horseback with his 22. Said if you couldn't kill a deer with a 22 you shouldn't be hunting. Each month his neighbors/friends would gather together and slaughter a calf to be divided up for that months meat supply. Eggs were collected every day and laundry was hand washed by his children.

In today's world such a lifestyle would be labeled abuse. Yet it made Annell into the go getter. If she wanted something, nothing was going to stand in her way. She was just waiting to turn 18 so she could get off the farm and head to Houston. When she left, she took Dorothy (her best Friend) and her older sister Ruby with her. They moved into a small apartment in Houston and went to work. Annell got a job as a cashier at Kelly's Retread Tires. She enrolled in accounting night classes at University of Houston, and after 2 years her beauty and smarts caught the attention of The President of First City National Bank, who hired her on the spot as his secretary. Many of the young men who banked at First City asked her out, and one young attorney asked her to the big dance at the Shamrock HIlton, the place to see and be seen. The State Bar Association was hosting the dance and her boss encouraged her to go. At the dance a dorky yet handsome attorney 5 years her senior asked her to dance.

He never left her side. She trained him well, turning him into the Stallion everyone wanted to be around. Everything he did was to please her. Life was rough, they didn't come from money, and she let him think that he ruled the roost. He wanted to build a house for her. He kept buying lots where for one reason or another she didn't want to live. Houston was building so fast they kept making money on the lots and being able to buy better lots. He had a builder client, so when they did find the right lot, they were able to build their dream home on the cheap. And with forethought build a home designed to triple in size over the years. The area they built in was smack dab in the middle of Memorial Villages, which developed into the highest priced homesteads in the United States by the end of their retirement. With her love of gardening she became the President of several garden clubs, President of the Houston Assembly of Delphian Chapters, President of the Delphian Past President Club, President of UH Lawyers wives club, President of the Junior League, Secretary of Harris County Democrats and joined anything that would raise their social standing. Her husband, Robert, dropped his first name and adopted his middle name Shearn for political reasons. Shearn would have never stood for election and win but for Annell. Annell was there for Shearn all the way, thru thick and thin. If Shearn became discouraged she would threaten to divorce him and leave him with the kids. And they had four wild kids. That would get him back on track. Both of them attended political rallies and did what it takes to get elected. On election day Annell gathered her kids, her sisters kids, and her friends kids. Everyone had at least 4 kids back then, so Annell took 1 kid, all of us around Jr. High Age to each polling place and was able to change 20% of the vote at each polling place by us kids running up to undecided voters and making them take our Dad's push card. One of the opponents complained that Shearn couldn't have that many children, which worked to the opponents downfall as the other poll workers came to the kid's rescue, and thus embolding the kids to push the cards. There were about 40 of us with a total of 650 polling places. Shearn won by less than 500 votes. Annell also got all her memorial republican friends to vote in the Democratic primary, reasoning with them that there was no Harris County Republican Party in 1968, so they should vote in the democratic primary if they wanted their vote to count. It Worked!

Shearn Smith was elected Judge 61st District Court in 1968 and remained Judge until his retirement in 1996. When Shearn and Annell were dating, she made him turn to Christ and join Faith American Lutheran Church. They were deeply religious and dedicated to God. They were married at Faith Lutheran, he was in the choir, she was head of the altar guild and she ran the nursery for years, he taught adult Sunday School class, he was president of the Church, and they stayed active at Faith all their life. They outlived all their church friends, almost all of their friends and relatives, and most of their children. While Shearn's body thrived, his mind wandered, and while Annells' body failed, her mind was alert. Annell's mentor was Jacqueline Kennedy - every closet in the house is packed with her fashionable clothes from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, etc. When Shearn and Annell married, he made sure she understood that he was going to take 25% of the gross he made and buy real-estate. She agreed. She really lived on a shoestring budget during the children's upbringing, sewing all of our clothes, and they really were frugal with their money. It wasn't until the children left home before they stopped investing and started spending. By retirement they owned a lot of farms and 1000 acre Ranch off the Brazos River, all the lands near to where Annell grew up. They should have called their ranch Camelot because in 1994 oil was discovered on all the lands they owned. In retirement, they loved to play bridge and they traveled around the world playing bridge onboard ships with their friends. Then they got old and died.

Annell will be buried next to Shearn in the Texas State Cemetery, Austin, Texas. Visitation will be held from 3:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m., Sunday, March 19, 2023 at Faith Lutheran Church, 4600 Bellaire Blvd. Services will begin at 4;00 p.m. with a reception immediately following.