James William Franklin Smith

Notes:

Lorraine Smith Benkelman notes that he was listed in 1910 census, Kalamazoo, MI, Ward 2, age 36 with wife Clara 30 Clarence w. age 7 and Justin H. age 3. Occupation Paper soaker at Mill. At the time of the 1920 and 1930 census in Berlin Township, Ionia, MI, laborer.

Family/Spouse: Clara Electa Flanegan. Clara (daughter of Hiram S. Flanegan and Clarissa "Cora" Angevine) was born on 17 Aug 1874 in Allegan County, Michigan; died about 1950 in Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lorraine Smith writes that Clarence began school in Park Falls, Wisc. Moved to Kalamazoo with his parents and his brother, Justin in Oct. 1909. Entered 6th grade at the Portage St. School on Sept 9, 1912, when he was 9 years old. He had been put ahead two years. He started in the stock room at Lee and Cady, Wholesale Grocery in Kalamazoo when he was 19 years old. He moved up through the ranks becoming the General Manager of the Kalamazoo branch and Vice President of the company based in Detroit. He retired in his late 50's when Lee and Cady was sold to Super Foods. His brother Justin had four children.

(Research):Census Information:

1930 Census
Michigan, Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo, Ward 5
Portage Street
ED 39-35 SD 16 Sheet 19A Stamped 180
Enumerated 12 April 1930
1520-431-481
Smith, Clarence W Hd R 45 M W 27 M 24 Wisconsin Mich Mich S
ales Manager Wholesale Grocery
Smith, Cora S Wife F W 25 m 23 Mich Mich Mich

Clarence married Cora Susan Page on 1 Oct 1927. Cora (daughter of Charles W. Page and Berdella Wright) was born on 26 Aug 1904 in Allegan County, Michigan; died on 1 Mar 2001 in Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lorraine Smith Benkelman shows that he married Velma WIDMOYER, and they were the parents of Justin, Barbara, Dorothy, and Donald.

Notes:

LORRAINE SMITH BENKELMAN
Lorraine Benkelman died with her family by her side June 15, 2012 in her home in Caseville from complications of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She was 81.
Born in Kalamazoo February 12, 1931 to Clarence W. and Cora Page Smith she was raised in Kalamazoo and studied business at Michigan State University for two years before marrying Robert F. Benkelman September 30, 1950. They lived in East Lansing and Bay City before settling in the Thumb in 1962, when Mr. Benkelman founded the Tuscola Broadcasting Company. After several years as a homemaker, Mrs. Benkelman joined her husband in the administration of the radio station, WKYO in Caro, where she used her accounting training and business sense to help run the enterprise.
In retirement, she and her husband owned a home near Tampa, FL but they returned to Caseville year-round in 2004. Mrs. Benkelman loved entertaining and spending time with her friends in the Thumb, who knew her as "Smitty". She also enjoyed researching family histories and other topics on the Internet. She was naturally computer-savvy, often helping her friends with computer setups and fixing their Internet connections.
Her husband preceded her in death September 22, 2006 as did her sister, Carole Ann Penturf in 1992 and a grandson, Keith Brooks in 2006. She is survived by three daughters: Carole (Kevin Larke) Benkelman of St. Johns, Catherine (Charles) Brooks of Sheridan, AR and Susan (Kenneth Fireman) Benkelman of Bethesda, MD; grandchildren: Jason Tetreau, Carrie Tetreau, Andrew Larke, Steven (Amber) Brooks, Eric Brooks, Catherine Fireman, Alexandra Fireman; and a great granddaughter, Faith Brooks.
Graveside service will be held 1:00 p.m., Friday, June 22, 2012 at her graveside in Elkland Township Cemetery. Interment will be in ElklandTownshipCemetery, CassCity. Memorials may be made to Rawson Memorial Library. Family and friends may share memories, prayers and stories with the family at www.kranzfuneralhome.com.

Arrangements by
Kranz Funeral Home, Cass City, Michigan
Debra L. Kranz, 989-872-2195

Lorraine married Robert Fletcher Benkelman on 30 Sep 1950 in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Robert (son of Harold "Sime" Leroy Benkelman and Isabel Lizzie Fletcher) was born on 1 Oct 1926 in Sandusky, Sanilac County, Michigan; died on 22 Sep 2006 in Saginaw County, Michigan; was buried on 26 Sep 2006 in Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She married Evan PENTURF, and they were the parents of David, Judith and Stephen.

Notes:

Carole was born in Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, but was brought home to her parents apartment in East Lansing, very close to Michigan State University, where her parents were living at the time.

In January, 1999, her mother wrote of her eldest daughter, "Lives in St. Johns, Michigan with her husband, a radio station engineer, yes, they met at our radio station. She works in a social agency and has three children, a boy and girl grown and a son (Andy) who is a second grader."

CAROLE JEAN BENKELMAN,
71, died January 19, 2023, after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at her home in Saint Johns, Mich., surrounded by family. Carole was born October 26, 1951 in Lansing, the first of three daughters born to Robert and Lorraine (Smith) Benkelman, and grew up in Cass City, where she graduated from high school in 1969.

A graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in human ecology, Carole worked as a social worker for several years. After graduating, she worked at Michigan Works, and then served as a case manager at a domestic violence and sexual assault services center in Clinton County. She also worked for several years at Federal Mogul in Saint Johns. Before retiring, she worked for The Salvation Army in Owosso.

From childhood to the end of her life, Carole was a source of joy for everyone around her, always sharing her positive spirit with friends and family even in times of adversity. She cared deeply about her family, especially her sons Jason and Andy and her daughter Carrie. Children brought her particular happiness. If you were lucky enough to be a child in Carole's life, you no doubt have a story to tell about something special she did for you or a fun place she took you.

Carole found great satisfaction in making connections. She was the keeper of family lore, and used her curiosity and sharp memory to help people understand their ancestors and what life was like for the people who came before us. After her parents died, she kept the pictures and letters they had retrieved from the old Striffler-Benkelman House on Houghton Street in Cass City, which was packed with family history (and a lot of other things) when her parents bought it in the 1960s. When the internet and genealogy web sites came along, Carole and her mother took great pains to post digital versions of the photos so that there were faces to go with the names.

Connections were so important to Carole that she helped people outside her family make them, too. In the last years of her life, she walked her caregivers through Ancestry.com to research their own families, helping them create genealogical trees and using the TV screen to display the app on her phone. She said it was a good way to pass the time, but everyone knew it was more than that. It was a reflection of how she lived her life, believing that time shouldn't be wasted sitting still, even when her disease forced her to. She loved to go on those journeys of discovery with the people who were helping her.

As a social worker, her generous and empathetic nature made her beloved among clients, as she helped them pay their utility bills or find them a warm place to stay. Once or twice her dedication to this work got her into trouble, like when she went against agency policy to transport clients to a safe place or buy them food with her own money, earning reprimands from bosses in the bureaucracy. But she cared more about the people than the policies - especially if children were involved. She was always thinking about someone else.

Carole adored things that had stood the test of time: old buildings, old furniture, old photographs and old souls. Her sisters remember how she liked to take pictures in cemeteries around the Thumb as a teenager. She cared as much about the elderly as she did children, making time to visit her grandparents to see that they never felt isolated as they aged.

Carole was always active - fixing or painting something, cleaning or working in the garden. She never sat down. So her 2014 diagnosis of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, was difficult to fathom. But it was also the same year that the Ice Bucket Challenge brought about heightened awareness of ALS, so its presence in society, and in her, was hard to ignore. She fought it to the very end, even though ALS is a progressive disease against which there really is no arsenal. That reality brought great frustration to her and her fellow "PALS" (people with ALS).

Carole is survived by her loving husband, Kevin Larke; sons: Jason Tetreau of Cass City, Andrew Larke of Owosso; daughter, Carrie Tetreau of Saint Johns; two sisters: Catherine (Charles) Brooks of Sheridan, AR; Susan (Ken Fireman) Benkelman of Bethesda, MD; two nephews: Steven Brooks, Eric Brooks; two nieces: Catherine Fireman, Alexandra Fireman.

According to her wishes, cremation has taken place. Inurnment will be in Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City in the spring. Carole asked that donations in her memory be made to ALS of Michigan in Southfield, which she said was the non-profit organization that helped her the most, and she'd like to pay that generosity forward.

Published by Kranz Funeral Home - Cass City on Jan. 21, 2023.

Carole married Gary D. Tetreau on 6 Nov 1971 in Caro, Tuscola County, Michigan. Gary was born on 16 Nov 1953 in Bad Axe, Huron County, Michigan; died on 7 Nov 1985 in Huron County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Carole married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]