McMinnville resident and Knox County native Ernest F. “Smitty” Smith Jr., 93, was born Jan. 22, 1925 and died March 24 at Sarah Cannon Cancer Center at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville following a brief illness. Retired from McMinnville Electric, a United States Navy veteran of World War II, and a member of Providence Baptist Church, he was the son of the late Ernest F. and Fannie Mae Tallent Smith. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by three sisters, Reba White, Barbara Blackburn and Bertha Smith.