Estelle Dickens Smith

Estelle Dickens Smith was born on December27, 1929 in Kemp, Texas to Thomas Alonzo and Pearl May Dickens. Estelle passed away in Athens, Texas on May 15, 2016 at the age of 86. Estelle as of this past Sunday the last known living female employee of the Kaufman County Poor Farm. She served as a caregiver and a cook while at the farm for the indigent. Estelle also worked as a cook for the inmates that were sentenced to the farm. Husband Walter “Sonny” Smith and Brothers Royce and Robert Dickens were mounted guards at the farm looking after the inmates sentenced there. Her father Thomas A. Dickens, a former Kaufman County Constable served as a jailer during the years 1950 thru 1955 under superintendant Raymond Blankenships tenure. Estelle is survived by Sons: Walter Jules Smith and wife Judy of Kaufman, Ronald Gene Smith and wife Bobbye of Crandall, Daughter: DeLana Graham and husband Billy of Blackfoot, Brothers: Roland Dickens of California, Royse Dickens of Dallas, 12 Grandchildren and 23 Great-Grandchildren and many Nieces and Nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents Thomas Dickens in 1957 and Pearl Castill Dickens in 1939, husband Sonny in 1988, her son Weldon in 2000, Granddaughter Sonnye Marie in 2003, Brothers: Rex, Regal, Robert, Reed, Raymond, Sisters: Edna and Evelyn.

Immediately following the graveside service there will be a lunch reception back at Parker-Ashworth Funeral Home at approximately 12:30