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Hornell, New York<\/p>\nHornell, New York<\/p>\n
James \u201cJim\u201d C. Smith (Smitty), age 74, of Hornell, passed away on August 17, 2025 at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.<\/p>\n
Born in Hornell on July 22, 1951, he was the son of Thomas A. & Mary J. (Kelleher) Smith.<\/p>\n
Jim grew up in Hornell and was a graduate of Hornell High School (Class of 1969).\u00a0 Following high school he joined his father and grandfather at A.W. Smith & Son, a family owned & operated newspaper and magazine distribution business.\u00a0 In later years, he worked as a painter for local contractors.\u00a0 He was a member of the Hornell American Legion.<\/p>\n
Family time was important to Jim.\u00a0 He always looked forward to family gatherings and holiday celebrations.\u00a0 At Christmas, the nieces and nephews always enjoyed the unique gifts from Uncle Jim.<\/p>\n
Jim enjoyed gardening and loved giving away vegetables and garlic to family and friends.\u00a0 He was known for his hot peppers that he made with Larry and Kathy Doty.\u00a0 They were always a center piece at his annual Super Bowl Party on Washington Street.<\/p>\n
Smitty was good at any sport he played.\u00a0 He was a softball legend in Hornell, where he played in the Hornell slow pitch league for 39 years.\u00a0 The lefty was known for his towering home runs at James St. Park.\u00a0 During his career he played for Caruso\u2019s Roofing and Southside Tavern and they won 15 city championships.\u00a0 He also played for Cappy\u2019s travel team made up of the top players in the Hornell area.\u00a0 The team traveled all over New York and Pennsylvania and was one of the top tournament teams in New York State.\u00a0 He was known as the \u201cBig Kahuna\u201d on the softball field.\u00a0 Smitty was also an excellent pool player. He played for many years in the Hornell Fraternal League representing the Hornell American Legion.\u00a0 Also, before his bout with cancer twenty years ago, Smitty was one of the top golfers in the area!\u00a0 Long off the tee and a putting stroke most golfers would give an arm and a leg for!\u00a0 He was an avid sports fan, and loved pulling for the New York Yankees and the Buffalo Bills.<\/p>\n
Smitty was blessed with many close friends who were like a second family to him.\u00a0 They spent many days at a little piece of heaven on earth called \u201cRock Haven.\u201d\u00a0 He had a love for the outdoors and spent many years bow hunting and casting a line with his buddies there.\u00a0 These were some of his fondest memories.<\/p>\n
In addition to his parents, Jim was predeceased by his brother Thomas J. Smith.<\/p>\n
Surviving are his four sisters, Barbara (Stephen) Todd, Patricia Smith, Christine (Robert) Cox and Janice (Steve) Leonardo; nieces and nephews, Michael (Andrea) Todd, Matthew (Ashley) Todd, Stephanie (Eric) Dunn, Christopher (Lauren Snyder) Todd, Kevin (fianc\u00e9 Maura) Cox, Brian (fianc\u00e9 Madisyn) Cox, Sara Leonardo, Emma Leonardo and Jason Leonardo; great nieces and nephews, Declan Todd, Emilia Todd, Hazel Dunn and Samuel Dunn; and several cousins.<\/p>\n
A special thank you to Clair Mallory, Frank Poorman and Pat Norton who have been an incredible help and support to Jim and his family.<\/p>\n
A private graveside service will be held at St. Mary\u2019s Cemetery.<\/p>\n
In honor of Jim, a \u201cCelebration of Life\u201d will be held on Saturday, September 20th from 12:00 (Noon) until 4:00 PM at\u00a0The Main Place, 251 Main St., Hornell, NY.<\/p>\n
Funeral arrangements are in care of the Dagon Funeral Home, 38 Church St., Hornell, NY.<\/p>\n
Memorial contributions may be made to the Wilmont Cancer Center, C\/O Strong Memorial Hospital, 601 Elmwood Ave., Rochester, NY 14642.<\/p>\n
To leave an online condolence or share a memory, visit www.dagonfuneralhome.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hornell, New York James \u201cJim\u201d C. Smith (Smitty), age 74, of Hornell, passed away on August 17, 2025 at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Born in Hornell on July 22, 1951, he was the son of Thomas A. & Mary J. (Kelleher) Smith. Jim grew up in Hornell and was a graduate of Hornell High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7754,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750\/revisions\/7754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}