Obituary of Smith, Vernon Ray

Vernon Ray Smith, age 79, passed peacefully at his Farmers Branch, Texas home on July 2, 2018 after a lengthy battle with leukemia. A Farmers Branch resident for over 43 years, Smith was born on March 6, 1939 to Onia and William Smith of Carlisle, Texas.  He joined the Navy at the age of 18 in 1958 and served his country for four years aboard various vessels in far east Asia, including a tour of duty in Yokosuka, Japan in 1961 leading up to the Vietnam War.  He married Rosie Lee Burrow in 1962, and the couple lived in Dallas, Texas.  Early in his career, he worked as a tax assessor in Mesquite, Texas and in the late 1970s, he began his own property tax consulting business, Vernon Smith Associates.  He retired from the industry in 2006 after a successful career.  Smith served as a reserve officer for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office for many years, and he was a 32^nd Degree Mason, Lodge #928. He was also a member of The Valley of Dallas. A self-made man with a larger than life personality, Smith’s tenacity to succeed and provide for his family served him well.  He lived by the philosophy, “I’ll try anything once,” and spent his life as a successful businessman and devoted family man.  In 2011, he married Peggy Thaxton Smith, and the two spent seven wonderful years together traveling the world. Smith is survived by wife Peggy Thaxton Smith; daughter Stacey Smith-Sembrick and husband Ronald O. Sembrick of Carrollton, Texas; daughter Paula Smith Reed and husband Greg Reed of Fall City, Washington; grandchildren Nicholas, Natalee and Noelle Sembrick; Rosie Lee Burrow Smith of Woodinville, Washington, mother of Stacey and Paula; step-daughter Melissa and Greg Brady of Highland, Illinois; step-son Justin and Andrea Thaxton of McKinney, Texas; step-grandchildren Susan, Luke, Kate, Ryan and Elizabeth Brady and Bailey and Andrew Thaxton; sister Pat Hardman of Hurst, Texas and numerous nieces and nephews. Services will be held at North Dallas Funeral Home, (Brooks Family Chapel), 2710 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch, Texas 75234 on Friday, July 6, 2018 at 2:00 pm.  Visitation begins at noon. Smith is preceded in death by his parents, Onia and William Smith, brothers Leslie, Jack and Jimmy Smith and sisters Marie Jordan and Peggy Barfield. In lieu of flowers, the Smith family respectfully requests that donations be made to Wounded Warrior Project in honor of Vernon Ray Smith online at https://fundraise.woundedwarriorproject.org/RTT/Fundraising/individual/In-Honor-of-Vernon-Ray-Smith Please leave the family condolences and share memories on this website.