Benito H. Smith was a lifelong resident of the South Side who trained with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and went on to work as a teacher and lawyer for the Chicago Public Schools.
Mr. Smith, 89, died Friday, Jan. 12, at his home in Chicago’s Park Manor neighborhood, said his son Steven. His son said his father had suffered from ailments including bladder cancer.
Mr. Smith grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He attended McCosh Elementary School, now Emmet Till Elementary and Englewood High School.
He and his friends were part of a social club called the Berenikes that hosted dances and other events in the neighborhood, said Mr. Smith’s son.
During World War II, Mr. Smith was in the Army Air Forces and received flight training at Tuskegee, Ala., said his daughter, Sandra Bell.
He served at Ft. Huachuca in Arizona and MacDill Field, now MacDill Air Force Base, in Florida. At Ft. Huachuca, he developed a lifelong love of mariachi music, his son said.
In later years back in Chicago, Mr. Smith was active with the “DODO” Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, said chapter President Beverly Dunjill.
After the war, Mr. Smith worked at the post office and received degrees from Chicago Teachers College, now Chicago State University, in 1948 and his law degree from John Marshall Law School in 1951.
After getting his teaching certificate, Mr. Smith taught for 22 years, primarily the upper grades at McCosh, his daughter said.
In 1970, he joined the public schools’ legal department, working there for 14 years until his retirement.
Mr. Smith lived for 50 years in his Park Manor home.
A quiet and analytical man, Mr. Smith was a winning Scrabble player and a constant reader of non-fiction and law books, his daughter said.
He wasn’t afraid of letting his personality through, growing out his hair and often wearing a braid, and topping his head with a bush-style hat brought back from Australia by his daughter.
At home, he did most of the cooking.
“It was hard for him to eat other people’s cooking because he liked his own,” said longtime friend Agnes Stevens.
Survivors also include his wife, Virginia; another son, Rodney; a brother, Theodore; and three grandchildren.
Services were held.
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