About 20 years ago, Dean Smith of Lawrenceville saw a $32,000 red calliope on sale for $7,000. A calliope — a carnival icon — is a portable organ with a keyboard and several long, gold wind pipes.
Ever since Smith’s kidney failure diagnosis, the professional photographer couldn’t hold a steady job and couldn’t afford his desired instrument. So Smith’s daughter, Sandi Benford, helped him buy it — a decision for which she will forever be grateful.
An experienced piano player, Smith called his calliope wagon “Wind Songs.” As his wife drove the truck, Smith, donning patriotic attire, played his calliope at numerous parades and festivals, including almost every downtown Atlanta Veterans Day Parade for the past 12 years. Parade organizer Rich Sales said parade-goers knew when Smith was arriving because of his distinct music. This year, though, Sales wondered why he didn’t hear the recognizable tune.
Two days before, on Saturday, Nov. 9, Dean Smith, 72, died at Gwinnett Medical Center from complications of multiple myeloma. A service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Tom M. Wages funeral home, Lawrenceville chapter. A military service will follow at 2:30 p.m. at Georgia National Cemetery in Canton.
Smith volunteered to perform at fundraisers most of the time. But he was such a brilliant calliope player that he was able to repay his daughter for the instrument within a year, Benford said.
She distinctly remembers the calliope’s golden shine, the Christmas lights her father used to wrap around its pipes and the grin on his face as he played.
“He just had this joyous, bubbly personality and the music … reflected that,” she said. “The calliope allowed him to live his dream. … It was a natural expression of his life-loving personality.”
Smith’s youngest child, Dean “Tiger” Smith Jr., said the instrument was an “extension” of his father. But he wasn’t a selfish player.
“When Dad played it was as much for whoever was listening as it was for himself,” Tiger Smith said. “He enjoyed it and he enjoyed giving other people the pleasure of it. He was just that kind of guy.”
Tiger Smith said that even after his father — a former U.S. Air Force member — experienced escalating health problems, he proved “to be a fighter.”
“He realized that he still had value,” the son said. “And the calliope gave him the chance to do that. … He was just a happy person and the instrument gave him a vehicle to express that.”
Along with Tiger and Benford, Smith is survived by his wife, Jan Smith of Lawrenceville; his daughter Shari Cook of Lawrenceville; his sisters, Edith Anne Puryear of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Alwayne Ruffner of Chattanooga, Tenn.; and six grandchildren.
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