NATCHEZ — Services for Ethel Bankston Smith, 87, of Cabot, Ark., formerly of Natchez, who died Monday, Dec. 27, 2010, in Cabot, will be at noon Thursday at Laird Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Mike Harrigill officiating.

Burial will follow at Greenlawn Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction of Laird Funeral Home.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until service time Thursday at the funeral home.

Mrs. Smith was born May 21, 1923, in Franklin County, the daughter of Marshall and Otice Stroud Bankston. She was a member of Fellowship Baptist Church of Cabot and was a charter member of Calvary Baptist Church in Natchez.

Mrs. Smith was also a member of the Homemaker’s Club. She was a wonderful loving Christian lady, touching a number of lives through her gentleness and impacted a number of lives teaching Sunday school and vacation Bible school.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Vernon Willard Smith; two sisters, Annie Sulivan and Bessie Arnold; and one brother, Otis Bankston.

Survivors include two sons, Vernon Milton Smith of Meadville and George Shirl Smith and wife, Jan, of Forest; one daughter, Patricia Gail Kurowski and husband, Leo, of Cabot; 10 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; one brother, M.L. Bankston and wife, Doris, of Meadville; one sister, Mildred Newell of Pascagoula; and a number of nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers will be Randal Calkins, Shawn Smith, Jonathan Smith, Avery Nobles, Earl Cox and Marshall Bankston.

Honorary pallbearers will be Eddie Freeman, Tom Holman, Bill Bean, Steve Tumbleson, Eric Simpson, Mark Whitley and Jeff DuBois.

Online condolences may be sent to www.lairdfh.com.