Early on the morning of October 7th, 2026 Martha Mason left this broken earth peacefully in her sleep in Cadiz, Kentucky and went home to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, after 83 years on this earth.
Ms.Mason was born to U.S. Navy SeaBee and United Methodist minister Reverend Thomas Y. Smithmier and Reverend Smithmier’s wife Ruby (Rogers) in Hickman, Kentucky on April 23rd, 1943. As toddlers, her older brother apparently couldn’t pronounce “Martha” and instead gave her the nickname Mott, which lasted for the remainder of her life. Throughout her childhood, her first cousin/best friend Sammie (Smithmier) Walker was seemingly never far away.
Growing up in a household with 4 brothers and no sisters, the younger Miss Smithmier was an adventurous, spirited tomboy who blossomed into an active, friendly, and funny young woman. The United Methodist Church moved pastors every two years back then, and so she went to three different high schools in four years. Although she graduated from Carlisle County High in 1961 after attending only her senior year there, she went to Mayfield High School her sophomore and junior year and she fell in love with MHS, considering herself a Mayfield Cardinal ever thereafter.
After graduating from Carlisle County High, she attended what was then known as Draughon’s Business College in Paducah. As the middle of the 1960s neared, Rev. Smithmier was assigned to Brewers United Methodist Church in southern Marshall County. While attending a service her father was preaching at the Brewers Church, the young Miss Smithmier met a grandson of the man who donated the land for the Brewers School and the Methodist Church. The young man, named Taz Mason, had just returned from serving our country in the U.S. Army in West Germany and was a Murray State University student.
Taz and Martha married in June of 1966 and settled in nearby Murray, where the new young Mrs. Mason worked in a series of doctors offices doing clerical work. At age 26, she was diagnosed with a particularly severe case of rheumatoid arthritis and had to stop working and give up her active lifestyle.
Murray is where Ms. Mason’s beloved young son and only child Lynn Alan, who later in life was given the nickname “Big Al” while he was following in his father’s footsteps and attending Murray State University. Ms. Mason was always her son’s biggest supporter, protector, and cheerleader, rooting loudly for the young Lynn Alan always, including on one memorable occasion when she reminded everyone “her baby” had just scored at great volume, even though he scored his first basket in the wrong basket in the waning seconds of the championship game, turning his team’s victory into a championship for the opposing team. Ms. Mason made quite sure that her son grew up knowing that women could do everything he could after the trials that had caused her while growing up. Even though things were at times challenging as Taz and Martha raised a son with Asperger’s Syndrome in a time when that diagnosis was not particularly well known, they made absolutely sure Lynn Alan grew up surrounded by love, acceptance, and laughter.
As Taz’s career progressed, it took the family first to Henderson, then to Russellville, and after a lengthy period in Owensboro, back to Benton and then to Cadiz. After growing up in one of the most historically significant families in basketball in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s First Region, Mrs Mason was a passionate, knowledgeable basketball fan who always enjoyed watching her teams, the Murray State Racers and the Kentucky Wildcats, compete while she also enjoyed following her Mayfield Cardinals as well.
Among a large welcoming committee that met Mrs. Mason in the afterlife this morning, her beloved Taz had to be among the first, and he more than likely lovingly teased her once again for it taking so long for her to make it to where they were going. Mrs. Mason’s lifelong best friend and first cousin Sammie Smithmier Walker was there, and it probably was mere seconds until the laughter of those two were echoing off of the Pearly Gates. She was also likely greeted by her parents Rev. T.Y. and Ruby Smithmier, and her parents in law Olice and Gladys Mason. Among the people who are now unfortunately paying the price in grief for the exquisite pleasure of knowing Mrs. Mason, her beloved son Lynn Alan “Big Al” Mason of Northampton, Massachusetts, several scores of nieces, nephews, and cousins, and hundreds of friends made in the Purchase Area, Henderson, Russellville, Owensboro, and Cadiz.
Visitation will be Wednesday, October 14th from 12:30 to 2:30 pm at Imes Funeral Home, 311 North 4th Street, Murray, KY 42071, followed by private graveside services at the Brewers United Methodist Church cemetery. Reverend Jonathan Clark of the Murray State BCM will officiate.
