Jim's Party: March 2009

Today Jim Smith's life was celebrated by his closest family and friends in Mckinney, TX. The party was held in a banquet room of the restored courthouse in McKinney's beautiful downtown square.

When I was asked to photograph the event I felt honored to do so. Jim was there the day I was born, this was the least I could do! When I think of Jim, I think of optimism. Jim's consistent optimism is truly an inspiration to me and I will carry his example with me for life. I also loved Jim's long, drawn out stories. It seemed as though Jim lived a dozen lives when he would tell one of the thousands of stories he had.
Jim hated jalapeños... Jim hated being cold...but Jim was always "TERRIFIC"!
I truly miss ya man. Please enjoy the pictures below.

-Ryan Thompson

Click on picture to enlarge it.

Jim about age 3 - wasn't he a cute little tyke?

High School Senior Picture 1961

The old courthouse in McKinney, Texas which is now the performing arts center

One of the rooms where the celebration of Jim's going home to be with the Lord was held

The guest book

Photo of Jim and his Aunt Jayne, his mother's identical twin

Jim built this device which put him and Mark in business in 1978 - it was a security device to override an elevator's timer so doctors could get to their offices after hours. Mark says he won't try and board a plane with it now.

Mark Thompson, Kirk Kirkpatrick and George Harwell - lunch buddies

Gail Ligon, Lynda Ligon Thompson and Brook Thompson -

(Mark's mother in law, wife and daughter in law)

Todd Thompson (Mark's younger brother), Mark and Brett Attaway a buddy of Mark and Todd's since high school

Todd Thompson, Walt Ligon (Lynda Thompson's father) and Brett Attaway

George Harwell and Eric Hodge - good friends

Charlie Parkman, Jo Ann Parkman, Gail Ligon and Walt Ligon

Mark's mother and stepfather and Lynda's parents

Herb Layman (Jim's across the alley neighbor), Mark, Judy Darrow (Beverly's jewelry friend) and J.W. Vaughn - the guy who bought Jim's first motorcycle a couple of years ago

Linda Harwell (George's wife), James Jordan - former neighbor and motorcycle buddy

Todd Thompson, Linda Harwell hugging Brett Attaway

Mark and George

Beverly, Judy Cordell and Elnoraine Atkinson - Jim's cousins and only family in Texas. Elnoriane is Jim's first cousin and 6 weeks older than his mother, who was her aunt. Judy is her daughter.

The card with the hearts in the foreground was made by 4 year old Christina Lanting, especially for Beverly

Some of the crowd enjoying refresments. There was standing room only when the story telling began.

J. W. Vaughn

Rose and J. W. Vaughn and George Harwell

Mark Thompson and Gary Kennedy - another motorcycle buddy

Walt Ligon and Lynda Thompson

Walt Ligon - kicking off the story sharing

Mark Thompson - telling stories

Paul Born - who was with Jim that Friday night and administered CPR before the ambulance arrived - he's a former fireman and Jim and Beverly have been eating dinner on Friday nights with he and his wife, Ginny since 1990!

Herb Layman and his daughter, Rhonda Daves, Paul Born, Ginny Born and Beverly in the foreground

Paul Born, sharing his experiences with Jim

J. W. and Rose Vaughn

George Harwell

Graciela Lugo and Beverly - Graciela owned Graciela's Mexican restaurant until recently. The "Lunch Bunch" of Mark, George, Kirk and Jim made it their mission to visit her at least weekly and harass the daylights out of her. Her restaurant had the best flan in town!

Jo Ann Parkman - Mark's mother telling about when Mark and Jim showed up to tell her they were going to go into the alarm business - Charlie Parkman in the background

Jo Ann handing off the mike to Mark - Ginny Born in the foreground smiling

J. W. Vaughn telling about the bike he bought from Jim that was used but looked showroom new and how it came with a very detailed log book of everything Jim had done to the bike

George's turn sharing how he and Jim didn't agree on everything, but he's back where he needs to be with God because of Jim's influence.

Mark with Gary Lanting - Gary is also in the alarm business and Jim and Beverly met him and his wife Marian about 4 years ago at church. Gary is telling a Jim story that occurred at his house this past Christmas eve, when he mistakenly looked to Jim to explain to Eathan, his seven year old son what the word boob meant. Eathan was watching Horton Hears a Hoo and someone was called a "boob". When Gary told him that he wasn't being called a body part, he lovingly looked at Jim for Jim to explain to his sheltered, home-schooled child what was meant by boob. In typical Jim fashion, it entered brain and came out mouth unfiltered and the response was "dumb ass". The look on Gary's face was priceless! The guests around the table "totally lost it" - truly a priceless Jim moment than none of us will forget!

Ethan Lanting drinking coke, Diane Middleton, Marian Lanting (Gary's wife) and April Tapper - church friends

Mark and Eric Hodge. Eric used to work with George and Kirk and now has his own computer business. He's been our "computer guy" for years.

Paul Born

Kirk Kirkpatrick, George's business partner and part of the "Lunch Bunch"

Beverly enjoying the stories

Kirk Kirkpatrick's turn at the microphone. Kirk's God given mission in life is to tease and harass. He and Jim have shared many times.

Lois and Don Coffin - part of the motorcyle riding bunch

Paul Born

Betty LeMay, Josh Stephens - church friends. Josh came to the hospital to pray for Jim. Charlie Parkman and Mark

Dick Hazelbaker who is one of the motorcycle crowd telling about Jim ordering 4 extra apricot fried pies from one of their restaurant haunts to take home. He told how the next time they were in that restaurant he told the waitress not to let Jim have any pies to take home since the previous time he didn't take them home but ate the 4 pies in the parking lot. He didn't, Dick was just messing with Jim, but the look on Jim's face when Dick told the waitress this was of total unbelief!

The "Lunch Bunch" - Mark Thompson, Graciela Lugo, Kirk Kirkpatrick and George Harwell

Kirk being Kirk and Graciela's look of amazement!

Herb Laymon who lives across the alley and Beverly

Rhonda Daves (Herb's daughter), Herb and Beverly

Beverly and Kathy Allen - a church friend

Beverly and Ginny Born (Paul's wife)

Mark Thompson, Todd Thompson, George Harwell and Tim Garvey

The Smith-Thompson Crowd -
Back Row: Jim Parker, Mark Thompson, Brett Attaway, Gary Rethemier and Jason Anderegg
Front Row: Linda Thompson, Colin Lynn and Matt Peters