Larkin I. Smith

Larkin I. Smith
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi's 5th district
In office January 3, 1989 – August 13, 1989
Preceded by	Trent Lott
Succeeded by	Gene Taylor
Personal details
Born	June 26, 1944 Poplarville Pearl River County Mississippi, USA
Died	August 13, 1989 (aged 45) Perry County, Mississippi
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Sheila Smith
Residence	Gulfport, Mississippi
Profession	Law enforcement officer

Larkin Irvin Smith (June 26, 1944 – August 13, 1989) was an American politician from Mississippi serving for seven months until he was killed in a plane crash in Perry County, Mississippi in 1989.

Smith was born in Poplarville, Mississippi to Nona Orene Bounds and her husband Hezekiah K. Smith, Sr. Smith was named after his maternal grandfather Larkin Bounds and his maternal uncle Irvin E. Bounds. He received his bachelor's degree from William Cary College and then served at various positions in the police forces in both Pearl River and then Harrison counties. He became the police chief in Gulfport and thereafter the Harrison County sheriff.

In 1988, Smith ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Mississippi's 5th congressional district in the southern portion of the state after eight-term incumbent Trent Lott gave up the seat to make a successful run for the Senate.

He defeated Democratic State Senator Gene Taylor and took office on January 3, 1989. However, Smith died on the night of August 13 in a plane crash in rural Perry County near Gulfport after returning from opening the Little League baseball "Dixie Youth World Series" in Hattiesburg. The bodies of Smith and pilot Chuck Vierling were not recovered until morning of the next day after a search in which rescuers had to bulldoze their way through the forest in which Smith's single-engine plane crashed. Smith's death was the second death in one week of a U.S. Representative in a plane crash. Representative Mickey Leland of Texas died in another plane crash in Ethiopia on August 7, 1989.

At the Dixie Youth World Series, two events occurred that would later take on ironic, tragic notes. Then-Mississippi Representative Sonny Montgomery of Meridian helped open the series along with Smith. As part of the opening festivities, a group of skydivers would parachute out of an airplane onto the playing field. Shortly afterward, Smith delivered a few remarks among which he joked "We're really glad to be here, but Sonny and I really wanted to sky dive in . . . Of course, if we had, you'd have been looking for us all night!"^[1] And then afterward, as Montgomery would later recall "Our last conversation at the series was talking about the loss of Representative Leland, and I told Larkin that he should be careful in traveling and performing his duties."^[2] Smith did not normally fly from Hattiesburg to Gulfport, but as he had attended a memorial service on the coast honoring victims of Hurricane Camille on the twentieth anniversary of the storm, he wished to reach Hattiesburg for the baseball event and felt pressed for time.

Taylor would succeed Smith in a special election held some two months after the crash. Taylor was reelected every two years until 2010, when he was defeated by Republican State Representative Steven Palazzo. Smith's widow, Sheila Smith, ran unsuccessfully against Taylor in 1990 for the seat.

References

1. Hattiesburg American, August 14, 1989, page 3A
2. The Hattiesburg American, August 14, 1989, page 3A

External links

• Infoplease biography of Smith

Larkin I. Smith at Find a Grave

• United States Congress. "Larkin I. Smith (id: S000584)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.