Chester Horace 'Chet' Smith

Chester Horace "Chet" Smith, 85, former Nevada newspaper editor and veteran of state and congressional politics, died Feb. 17, 2005, in Alexandra, Va.

He was born May 24, 1919, in Burns, Ore., to Chester Bernard and Elsie May Gates Smith. He grew up in Winnemucca, where he became the youngest Nevada newspaper editor in 1939 at the Humboldt Star.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II as a combat correspondent with the Fifth Marine Division.

He saw action in several Pacific conflicts, including the Iwo Jima campaign. Before his discharge, he edited the first daily newspaper published in Japan for American occupation forces.

He earned the Purple Heart, Navy Commendation, Presidential Unit Citation and the Japanese Occupation Award.

His political career started with the election campaign of U.S. Sen. E.P. Carville in the mid-1940s. He was an aide to several other Nevada political figures, including U.S. Senators Pat McCarran and Alan Bible and Gov. Charles Russell. He was also active on the election campaign staffs of presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

He became a partner in the Las Vegas law firm of Cory, Denton & Smith and earned his bachelor's and law degrees at George Washington University.

He served as legislative assistant and press secretary to Carville and McCarran and managed Bible's four election campaigns. During his association with Bible, he held several congressional posts in Washington, including staff director and counsel of the Senate Rules Committee, the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia and the Select Committee on Small Business.

He married Elizabeth Harrison Pence in 1948. Following her death in 1974, he married Miriam O'Dell Fox, who died in 2000.

Among his survivors are daughters Anne Elizabeth Ponsen of Alexandria and Sandra Harrison Hilburn Jr. of Greenville, S.C.; and grandchildren Johan Ponsen of Arlington, Va., Bryan Hilburn of Clemson University, S.C., and Laurie Hilburn of Greenville.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 1301 Collingwood Road, Alexandria, Va.

A funeral service and interment will be at 11 a.m. March 15 at the Post Chapel, Fort Myer, Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington with graveside services following.

Donations may be made to the Harney County Historical Society, P.O. Box 388, Burns OR 97720.