D. Dale "Smokey" Akins, 94, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and brother, left his suffering for a better life Monday, June 4, 2007.
Funeral: 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Mount Olivet Chapel. Burial: Mount Olivet Cemetery. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Mount Olivet Funeral Home.
Smokey was born Oct. 31, 1912, in Oklahoma to Jessie and Eddie Akins. During the Depression, he enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps. He was a retiree of General Dynamics and a longtime member of Victory Baptist Church. He had resided in Haltom City since 1949. He was a many-faceted personality who had a story or a joke for all family gatherings and for anyone who would listen, even during his most recent hospital stay. Smokey was a man of the outdoors who loved boating, fishing, hunting, archery, golf and even played semi-pro baseball in his younger years. He created a parklike area from the property of one of the oldest residences in Haltom City that had gone into disrepair, doing all the physical work himself. He will be greatly missed but not forgotten.
The family wishes to express deep gratitude for the loving care he received at Harris Methodist and Kindred hospitals and for the caregivers at Lifecare Haltom City.
He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers; and four sisters. He had one sister, Hazel James of Lubbock, presently the lone survivor of a family of 10 children raised during the Depression by their mother.
Survivors: Love of his life, Berneita Smalley Akins with whom he had recently celebrated 70 years of marriage; children, Anna Ruth Collins and husband, Jack, and Bobby Roy Akins and wife, Patricia; grandchildren, Jack Collins II, Brad Collins and wife, Terri, and Ken Collins and wife, Nancy, all residing locally, Andrea Lynn Beattie and husband, Chris, of Canandaigua, N.Y., Tiffany Howley and husband, P.J., of Burleson and Chance Tawater of Alabama; his great-grandchildren, who loved him very much, Megan, Shaney and Verity Collins, Emma Simmons, Victoria and Alex Howley, Landry, Logan and Lainey Collins and Ashton Davis; and a host of friends.
Published in the Star-Telegram on 6/6/2007.