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06/04/2018

Housing Authority of Florence Board commissioner receives honor

Congratulations to our Housing Authority of Florence Board commissioner Felicia Robinson Smith-Charles on her recognition by the South Carolina Morticians Association as 2018 Professional of the Year!

Article from https://www.scnow.com/ published on June 3, 2018:

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The owner of a Florence funeral home recently was honored by the South Carolina Morticians Association as 2018 Professional of the Year.

Felicia Robinson Smith-Charles was honored on May 16 at the Embassy Suites Hotel Airport Convention Center in North Charleston.

Smith-Charles is a licensed funeral director and owner of Smith Funeral Home of Florence, located at 307 South Johns Street. She was thrust into the role of funeral director upon the accidental
death of her former husband, the late James Lawrence Smith.

Smith-Charles has spent her life living as a Christian, a wife and a mother while serving the workforce as a social worker and funeral director. She is a member of Trinity Baptist Church in Florence, serves as a Housing Authority of Florence board member and is a Diamond Life member of Delta Sigma Theta.

Smith-Charles’ professional experience has helped her son, James Lawrence “Chipper” Smith II, move into the role as a third-generation leader of the family owned and operated business.

Smith-Charles continues to maintain her focus on the needs and concerns of families around the Pee Dee, exemplifying a belief at Smith Funeral Home that “Loved Ones Deserve the Best.”

“It’s not the big things that impact our lives but the small things,” Smith-Charles said when she accepted the award as a reminder her colleagues.

She went on to thank the South Carolina Morticians Association for the honor and the Sixth District Mortician’s Association, where Rev. Ralph W. Canty Sr. is the president and Mary Bowman is the governor.

The South Carolina Mortician Association is the state’s largest gathering of licensed directors, morticians, embalmers, apprentices and mortuary students.

Smith-Charles, who is married to Commodore Charles, said she is reminded of a saying Pastor Emeritus Rev. William P. Diggs of Trinity Baptist Church quotes: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17) and further states, “to be acknowledge by one’s peers is a declaration of commitment and leadership.”

Smith-Charles said she is grateful to God and members of her dedicated staffs of Smith Funeral Home of Florence and Sunset Memory Gardens of Florence whom she says contributed to this achievement.