William Charles Smith was born on June 18th, 1945, third son of Marie Pereau Smith and Wilfred (“Puss”) Smith. The family grew with the birth of a daughter after the sad death of their first son, who died of a brain tumor. The family lived on Wolf Creek, west of the town of Wolf Point.
Bill attended Wolf Point High School, Shaddock Military School, and he graduated from Wolf Point High School, where he was a basketball star and still holds state basketball records to this day.
Bill grew up loving music, and Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Nancy Sinatra, and Dean Martin were among his favorites.
Bill went to college in Billings for a while and then he went on to attend Dixie State University in St. George, Utah.
When Bill came home from St. George, he took firefighting training. He became a firefighter for the State of Montana and was sent to fight wildfires all over the West.
Bill settled in Wolf Point, where he enjoyed farming and ranching on land along Wolf Creek and the Missouri River.
Bill enjoyed sports of all types, basketball being his favorite, but he was a most avid fan of the Green Bay Packer Football team! The world stopped when his beloved Packers were playing!
On January 12, 2008, Bill was inducted into the Indian Basketball Hall of Fame, an honor of the highest order! Here are some of the incredible stats that Bill held. He was called one of the most pure shooters in Montana basketball history. He once boasted 47 points against the Glendive Red Devils, and that was after he’d been taken out of the game in the 3rd quarter! He is Wolf Point’s all-time leading scorer with 1362 points. He was a member of 2 state championships with the Wolves in ’61 and ’62. He was as good with a 10 – 15 foot hook shot as he was with a 10 – 15 foot jump shot!
Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Marie and “Puss”, his brothers, Wilfred and Ronnie, and his sister, Geri Ellen Smith Jensen (Duane Jensen). He is survived by his daughter, Jody Denison (Kent Denison), and her children, Brayden and Cameron Denison, of Denver, Colorado, 4 living cousins, Amber Smith Arndt of Wolf Point, Kermit and Larry Smith of Wolf Point, and Kay Dell Smith Ahern, of Scottsdale, AZ, plus many second cousins, nieces and nephews.
Bill Smith passed on to his Heavenly Home on January 29th, 2020 in a hospital room in Billings. He had fought a good fight for a long time, and in the end, Cancer took him. Bill had lived a full, happy life, doing just the things he enjoyed and spending time with the people he cared most about. Elsie King Hanson was one of the people he cared about most.