Senior life a benefit to Smith

Published 12:12 am Saturday, October 1, 2011

Editor’s note: Fifty Plus is a weekly feature that provides a look at area senior citizens, their accomplishments and their life experiences. Fifty Plus prospects are asked to fill out a questionnaire concerning their lives.

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This week’s Fifty Plus takes a look at Eloise McKinney Smith, who is retired.

Where are you from originally?

Belhaven.

When did you move here? Why?

2005. To be closer to son.

To what clubs/church do you belong?

Warren Chapel in Blounts Creek

Education (list schools, starting with high school)

12 years. John A. Wilkinson High School.

If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?

Pay all my bills and my son’s bills.

What is the thing most people don’t know about you?

My age.

What is your favorite food?

Chicken and vegetables.

What’s the last book you read?

Bible.

What is your favorite TV show?

Drama.

What’s the best advice you ever received and who gave it to you?

Never start anything you can’t finish. My dad.

What’s the biggest difference between life as a senior as opposed to below age 30?

Get senior benefits.

Compiled by Mike Voss

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.