From SL Trib:
Humor the hallmark of family patriarch
Briant Grant Smith - 1916-2006
By Jason Bergreen
The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune
Briant Grant Smith loved to sing and listen to his wife play piano, but no matter how hard he tried, the grandson of former LDS Church presidents Joseph F. Smith and Heber J. Grant, could not master the clarinet. Smith's son, Briant J. Smith, said Thursday that his father would sometimes accompany his wife Cecile on clarinet, but with poor results he was quite aware of. The mock concerts were hysterical. That was one of many memories family members shared at 3 a.m. Jan. 6 as they sat at the bedside of the elder Smith just hours before he died from complications due to Alzheimer's disease. He was 90. "Before long we were just laughing," Briant J. Smith said. "I know that sounds strange, but there was just so much to laugh about. . . . As he was going, we could not help remembering the good times." The elder Smith grew up in the Avenues area of Salt Lake City and was the fourth of eight children. He loved to fish and build whirligigs with his father and brothers. He learned to swim at the Deseret gym. He also volunteered to help widows in his neighborhood take trash cans to and from the curb. In the winter, he cleared their sidewalks of snow. "My father trained him to do things like that," said his older sister, Florence Jacobsen. As young men, Briant G. Smith and his brothers assisted their grandfather, Heber J. Grant, in his capacity as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "They acted as chauffeurs," Jacobsen said. "They also acted as secretaries and helped with the thousands and thousands of books that he signed." Briant G. Smith graduated from West High School and the University of Utah. He served an LDS mission in Germany and later joined the military and served in World War II with four of his five brothers, Jacobsen said. During the war, Briant G. Smith conducted enemy interrogations and translated documents. His son said he was one of five men who helped translate surrendering documents from English to German at the end of the war. "He told us that in his later life," Briant J. Smith said. Between 1979 and 1982, Briant G. Smith served as the president of the Austria Vienna Mission. Despite suffering from Alz?heimer's at the end of his life, the elder Smith kept his personality intact. "My father had a very gentle personality," Briant J. Smith said. "He was very sweet. He was never mean. He never had a cold demeanor about him." Smith also had an enormous love for his family, including his three daughters and only son. "He was a prince among men," Briant J. Smith said. "He was more than that to me." jbergreen@sltrib.com