Josephine "Joey"  ¹⁰ BIGELOW

THE BLADE: TOLEDO, OHIO • THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2000
JOSEPHINE 'JOEY' SMITH, 1908-2000
Ex-owner of music store led B.G. band
BY TOM JEWELL
BLADE STAFF WRITER

BOWLING GREEN — Josephine "Joey" Smith, an owner of a former music store here who played in a family band and other musical groups for many years, died Tuesday in the Wood
County Hospital. She was 92.
Mrs. Smith was a patient in the hospital about a week and had been a resident of the Wood County Nursing Home since May, 1998, her son, Jerry, said. He de­clined to give the cause of death.
Mrs. Smith was a part-owner of the former Bigelow Music Shoppe at 126-130 East Wooster St. Her late brother, Jack Bigelow, opened the store in 1946, and it closed in 1980, her son said.
Mr. Smith described it as a full-service store, offering anything to do with music — instruments, re­cords, sheet music, and accesso­ries.
She was an accomplished musi­cian who played drums, trumpet, and xylophone, he added.
"All the Bigelows played more than one instrument," Mr. Smith said. "She was a professional mu­sician. It was a musical family. "
They formed the Bigelow Band, which performed at the Wood County Fair and other events. The brass band appeared on radio broadcasts.
Mrs. Smith's sister, Virginia "Fritzi" Hartman, recalled the two of them going on the road through the South and the East.
"She was our drummer," Mrs. Hartman said. Their father built the Bigelow Band around the fami­ly's eight children.
From 1975 to 1985, Mrs. Smith played in the Bowling Green Citi­zens Band. "That was her band," her sister said. "She organized it."
The group played a variety of dance and popular music.
Mrs. Smith was born in Bowling Green to John and Etta Hunt Bigelow. She attended elementary grades in Bowling Green schools.
When the family moved to Toledo for a short time, she gradu­ated from Scott High School in 1927.
She and Roy H. Smith were married in the First Presbyterian Church here on Feb. 15, 1928. Her husband died Feb. 4, 1963.
Surviving are her daughter, Carol Hessey; son Jack; sister, Vir­ginia "Fritzi" Hartman; three grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.
Services will be at 11 a.m. to­morrow in the Dunn Funeral Home, Bowling Green, where the body will be after 6 tonight.
The family requests tributes to the department of urology at the Cleveland Clinic for the prevention and study of urinary tract infec­tions in the elderly.

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