Obituary

Smyth, Rawleigh Porteus, Col.

PLAINVIEW, Texas, Feb. 3, 1941 (AP) ? Col. R. P. Smyth, 85, who surveyed and named towns in the West Texas Plains country and who once was elected to the Legislature and didn?t hear about it for three months, died Monday in the Veterans Hospital at Amarillo.
Colonel Smyth was born in Austin and grew up to be a surveyor, legislator, soldier and lawyer. He came to West Texas in 1887 and two years later set up an office here. He surveyed and named Happy (after an Irishman called Happy Jack), Tulia, Hale Center and Emma. He surveyed other town also.
He was graduated from the Texas Military Institute in 1877 and served as Brigadier General in the Texas Volunteer Guard. During the Spanish-American War he commanded troops on the Rio Grande, with the rank of Colonel.
In 1896 he was elected to the Legislature from a district embracing thirty-six Plains counties. He was surveying for the XIT Ranch at the time and did not learn of his election for three months. He was elected to a second term in 1924.
Colonel Smyth was prominent in Masonic circles and in the Presbyterian Church. He was Mayor of Plainview from 1932 to 1934.
He married Florence Tucker in Forth Worth in 1892. She died two years later.
Printed in the Dallas Morning News, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 1941.