Ralph Thomas “Buddy” Smith, age 93, died Friday at North Florida Regional Medical Center. Buddy Smith, started Buddy’s Welding Shop on South Main Street in Downtown Gainesville in 1946, Buddy was one of the more colorful business people in Gainesville. He worked the Shop until he sold out to Austin in 1991. Buddy still didn’t retire at that time, he still had hogs and goats to tend and mules to raise and train to harness, plow and wagon. He loved his hogs, goats and breeding and training mules. He built wagons. Buddy belonged to a club that trained mules to harness and to pull wagons. He and his group would go all over north Florida with their mules and wagons. Buddy attended Kirby Smith and Gainesville High School and then he went on to welding school where he became a certified welder. Buddy was preceded in death by his wife Gladys A. Massey Smith, his son, Ralph T. Smith, Jr. Survivors include his daughter, Carolyn Smith Wilson of Windsor, FL. ½ Brothers, Robert Smith and Chester Smith, ½ Sister, Jessie Mosley, Grandchildren, Randell L. Wilson, Virginia P. Hutchins, Blanche Lester all of Gainesville and Bobbie Jo Cozard of McAlester, OK and seven Great Grandchildren. Funeral Services will be held, Saturday Oct. 24, 2015 in the Milam Funeral Home Chapel, 311 S. Main Street, Gainesville at 2:00 PM with Burial to follow in the Forest Meadows East Cemetery.
