Betty Nell Daniels Smith, 85, of Tifton passed away Tuesday, December 27, 2016, at Tift Regional Medical Center. A graveside funeral service will be held for Mrs. Smith at 2:00 p.m. Friday, December 30, 2016, at Tift Memorial Gardens, where she will be laid to rest. The Rev. Scott Smith will officiate. The family will receive friends Thursday, December 29, 2016, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals.
Mrs. Smith's grandsons, Christopher Stacy Bryant, James L. Gillespie III, Ethan Dre Bryant, Ryan Cole Bryant, Jordan Ryan Houle and Hunter McKay Webb will serve as pallbearers.
Born December 22, 1931 in Fitzgerald, Mrs. Smith was the daughter of the late James Curtis Daniels and Nancy Cornelia Howell Daniels. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Paul Smith, Sr., who died in 1991; one daughter, Karen Diane Bryant, who died in 1991; one brother, James Howell Daniels; and two sisters, Bernice Cornelia Portivent and Doris Elaine Tripp. She was a retired secretary and a member of 12th Street Pentecostal Church in Tifton. She loved to fish on the Ocmulgee River.
Mrs. Smith is survived by three sons and a daughter-in-law, Daniel Edward Dorminey of Moultrie, James L. Gillespie, Jr. and wife, Dell Gillespie of Tifton and Lawrence Keith Gillespie of Tifton; eleven grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren; and three great-great grandchildren.