By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief,  Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black news venues (www.clevelandurbannews.com) Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The wife of Cleveland NAACP President The Rev Hilton Smith passed away on Saturday, October 12, 2013, after a long illness, officials of the local chapter of the nation's most renowned Civil Rights organization said Monday. Arrangements for Delores W. Smith are by Strowder's Funeral Home in Cleveland. The wake is at the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland where Rev Smith is an associate minister, 1161 East 105th St, at 10:30 am, on  Friday, October 18, with the funeral following at 11:30 am.  The viewing is on Thursday, October 17 from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm at Strowder's Funeral Home, 822 East 105th Street in Cleveland, phone 216-761-3092.

Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, a member of the Cleveland NAACP Executive Board, said that Smith and his wife "were always together at public events and that they were such a nice and pleasant couple and role models who always dressed well."

"She was quiet and he is friendly and the consummate gentleman," said Mitchell.

"We offer condolences to Rev Smith and his family," said Community Activist Mary Seawright, a member of the grassroots groups Imperial Women and Black on Black Crime Inc who owns and operates Seawright Enterprises in Cleveland and is also a member of the Cleveland NAACP.

Senior Greater Abyssinia Pastor the Rev. Dr. E. T. Caviness, the first vice president of the Cleveland NAACP and the executive director of the Cleveland Chapter Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will do the eulogy.

Rev Smith, 66, is senor vice president for corporate and community affairs with Turner Construction Company in Cleveland and a former Cleveland School Board president. He took the helm of president of the local NAACP late last year and replaced longtime president George Forbes, 82, a former Cleveland City Council president and current general counsel for the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press.

Delores Smith was once a model, her friends said.

Regarding her age at death, NAACP officials would only say that she was "sixty something." Her obituary is being written and will be released prior to the wake and funeral, Cleveland NAACP officials said.

The Smith's have three grown children, and four grandchildren.