Ronnie Ray Smith crossed life’s finish line in style — and defiant to the end.
Loved ones of the Olympic champion said goodbye to Smith in a track-themed memorial service, befitting his remarkable contribution to sports and civil rights.
In a service that will be shown on TLC’s “Best Funeral Ever” — the Season 2 premiere airs on Monday — Smith’s casket was rolled over the finish line one more time.
Then it was propped up on an Olympic-style medal podium so loved ones could stand alongside and replicate his famous closed-fist salute.
Smith and three teammates won gold at the 1968 Mexico City games, taking the 4×100 relay. They stood in unison on the medal stand and lifted their closed right fists in solidarity with the civil-rights movement.
Golden Gate Funeral Home of Dallas has taken center stage for over-the-top services that honor the dearly departed in the most personal, zany and crazy terms.
In recent years, Golden Gate has become famous for its elaborate and upbeat “homegoing” services, in which a loved one’s life — rather than death — is the focus.
Other memorials that will be profiled this season on TLC include:
- One client ate breakfast food three times a day, so loved ones dressed up as their favorite morning fare — a carton of milk, stack of flapjacks and bacon, among others — at his homegoing.
- Another dearly departed loved game shows, so his service used the man’s casket as the podium where “contestants” stood behind to answer questions.
- In Monday’s season premiere, funeral planners turn into wedding planners for a man whose parents died within months of each other. Their urns were dressed in a tiny wedding gown and tuxedo. When they tied the knot in life, there was no formal service.
“I wanted to give them something they never had in life,” their son Michael told TLC cameras. “My parents got married today. I can’t ask for anything more.”
John Beckwith Jr. and his father founded Golden Gate in 1980 to provide for Texas’ underserved African American community.
“Challenge is what motivates us,” said Beckwith, 47, adding that most of his employees joined the business because, like those in the clergy, they felt “the calling.”
Golden Gate funeral planner Eplunus “E” Colvin agreed: “To use my gift to bring satisfaction and closure to families who have lost their loved ones is so gratifying.
“I never thought my creativity would be used at a funeral home.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li