F. D. Smylie

F. D. Smylie Services: 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 24, Stacy-Lewis Home for Funeral and Cremation Services, Columbus Junction. Visitation: 4-7 p.m. today, funeral home. COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa #45;- F. D. Smylie, 94, Columbus Junction, died Saturday, May 21, 2005, at Colonial Manor Care Center, Columbus Junction. The Rev. Linda Baldwin will officiate the services. Burial will be at Columbus City Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to United Presbyterian Church. Mr. Smylie was born Nov. 12, 1910, in Columbus Junction, the son of Robert F. and Mabel Duncan Smylie. He married Lucile Beik Aug. 28, 1937, at the home of her parents in rural Grandview. He was a lifelong resident of Columbus Junction and Louisa County. After graduating from Columbus Community Schools, he attended Iowa State University in Ames, majoring in animal husbandry. In 1930, he was recommended by the college staff to manage the purebred livestock operations on a large ranch in Sacramento, Calif. After spending more than two years in California, he returned to Columbus Junction in 1932 to assist in the development of a livestock auction market that his father had originally star...[more]

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in 1931 under a large maple tree next to his home, which is the current school administration building. During the livestock auction market's 44 years of existence, the auction became a large marketing center for livestock producers and farmers from a several county area. The market was originally known as Midway Sales Co., so named from the location midway between Columbus Junction and Columbus City. The auction business was sold in 1975, most of the buildings eventually removed, and the acreage is now part of the Columbus Community school ground. The original sale ring and offices still exist as part of the school complex, and the building currently used as a bus shed was the last livestock barn built by the Smylies in 1964. Twin Knolls Farm has been the Smylie homestead since 1938. While still home to Angus cattle, in more recent years they have been joined by the large, Belgian horses, which are an attraction at parades and shows. In 1991, he and his wife were honored as Distinguished Citizens at the Columbus Day Parade, and that same year, he was inducted into the Iowa Association of Fairs Hall of Fame, Des Moines. In 2000, he was elected to the Iowa Draft Horse Hall of Fame. He was a member and past president of the Columbus Community Club and the Louisa County Fair Board (since 1945), a director of the Columbus Junction State Bank, and a founding member and director of Colonial Manor. He held memberships in the Elks, Masons, Kaaba Shrine, American Angus Association, Belgian Draft Horse Corp. and the Iowa Angus Cattlemen's Association. He was a past director of the Iowa Livestock Marketing Association and a member of the Columbus Junction Planning and Zoning Board and United Presbyterian Church, where he was first confirmed in 1923. He was proud to be a resident of Columbus Junction and in 1999, he and his wife donated the land on which the new Columbus Community Elementary School was built. Survivors include his wife; a son, John Smylie and wife Nancy of Palatine, Ill.; three grandchildren, Kim Arnold and husband Kevin of Tempe, Ariz., Susan Skrudland and husband Kurt of Chicago, Ill., and Diane Zelich and husband Mark of Hawthorne Woods, Ill; and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Robert; and a sister, Martha Kochenderfer.