James Smith

Dr. James “Pat” Smith, long-time professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi, passed away on February 16. He was born in Danville, Kentucky, on April 20, 1948, to Rev. James Aaron Smith and Mary Lin Patterson Smith. 

Family, faith, and service were the touchstones of Professor Smith’s life and his 42 years of teaching. He considered his luckiest find to have been his lifelong sweetheart and wife, Jeanette. His happiest moments were spent fishing, hiking, canoeing, or playing with his daughters, grandchild, nieces, and nephews. 

Smith was a member of First United Methodist Church of Gulfport, where for many years he taught Sunday School and served on the Board of Trustees. He also served on the Methodist Senior Services Board at Seashore Highlands and the boards of the Mississippi Historical Society and the Mississippi Humanities Council. 

When he returned to Mississippi after graduate school, Smith threw himself into the push to adopt and fund Governor William Winter’s major education reform program. He became a board member of the Mississippi Association of Educators and served multiple terms on the M.A.E. political action committee. He also served on state and county executive committees of the Mississippi Democratic Party and attended Democratic National Conventions as a delegate in 1988 and 2008. During these years, Smith often appeared on Biloxi’s WLOX-TV as a political analyst. 

Smith graduated from Mississippi College and accepted a fellowship at Vanderbilt University, where he completed a master’s degree in history in 1973. For the next five years, he taught in community colleges in Alabama while pursuing additional graduate studies in psychology at Auburn University in Montgomery. In 1978, he returned to Vanderbilt to finish coursework for his doctorate in history. While finishing dissertation research, Smith taught history and psychology at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in history in 1984, Dr. Smith began teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he retired in 2014 with the rank of Professor Emeritus of History. 

Professionally, Smith was most proud of the many teachers he helped to train. His students remember his lively and inspiring classroom style and his easy accessibility outside of class. As a researcher, Smith produced two books and 20 scholarly articles and reviews. His publications covered such diverse topics as British imperialism, the civil rights movement, and Mississippi history, including the definitive scholarly account of Mississippi’s experience in Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. 

In 1996, Smith was recognized with a Faculty Excellence Award in University Service. In 2006, he received a USM Extraordinary Service Award for work done for the university’s recovery from Katrina. He served two terms on the USM Academic Council and multiple terms on the USM Faculty Senate and the Gulf Coast Faculty Council, ending in 2014. 

Dr. Smith was preceded in death by his parents and grandparents, J. C. “Bud” Smith, Almeda Walley Smith, Dr. M. O. Patterson, and Marguerite Pettis Patterson. He is survived by his beloved wife of 56 years, Jeanette Holcomb Smith; his children Jenny Elizabeth Smith Benoit (David) of Tyrone, GA, and Amy Katherine Smith Bradley (John) of Maryville, TN; one grandchild, Alex Bradley; brother Benjamin Philip Smith (Frances); sister Jeanne Lin Kelly; and numerous nieces and nephews. 

In place of flowers, the family prefers donations to the USM Foundation’s James Pat Smith and Jeanette H. Smith Scholarship Fund or to the building fund of the First United Methodist Church of Gulfport.

The memorial service will be Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. where friends may visit beginning at 1:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Gulfport. Interment will be held on Monday, February 24, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. in the Frisco Cemetery in Perry County, MS.

Bradford O’Keefe Funeral Home, O’Neal Road, Gulfport, is honored to serve the family of Dr. James “Pat” Smith.