Roy Smith Obituary, Death – On December 1, 2022, Roy Robert Smith III, also known as Trae Smith, passed away and went to live with his savior, Jesus Christ. Jean and Roy Smith welcomed their son Trae into the world on July 1, 1963 in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. When he was a child, he looked forward to spending the summers in Mississippi with his grandparents and being pampered by his grandmother Maxey, who was known for her homemade, southern-style meals.
After his grandmother discovered that he was stealing grain from their cornfield and selling it on the side of the road when he was very young, she encouraged him to pursue a career in business. When Trae was a junior in high school in Arlington, Texas, he was fortunate enough to meet the woman who would become the love of his life. They both went to Lamar High School, and from the moment he laid eyes on her, he knew she was the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with.
They chose to raise their family in the Houston region after they tied the knot on April 29, 1984. After that came Britany, Brooke, and Dylan, all three of them being children. Trae had spent his entire career in the shoe industry. He spent his childhood working at the shoe company that his family owned, and at the age of 22, he founded his first shoe store, which was located in the Sharpstown Mall in Houston and was called Shoe Express. After that, he found employment with Stride Rite and quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the nation’s youngest top producing Keds salesman. He was given a number of honors and was influential in the invention of new styles.
In 1998, he moved on to support the family firm once more and began expanding the Brighton and Bernardo footwear brands into some of the most well-known and highly sought-after shoe brands in the industry. Over the past few years, he has been diligently working to establish the Firebug shoe brand, which is a line of children’s footwear that incorporates an internal illumination technology that he designed and patented.
This technology allows the shoes to glow in the dark. In addition to running a shoe business, Trae also established and managed two commercial storage facilities in Fort Bend County, which together have catered to thousands of customers over the course of the previous three decades. Trae was a very routine-oriented person. You could find him first thing in the morning getting his coffee and breakfast at Cinnamon’s Bakery or Pacific Coast Taco, depending on which establishment he chose. After that, he would embark on the day with the intention of working hard on his companies. In recent years, his health has become the primary focus of his attention. He went to the gym on many days throughout the week and made sure that he told his wife how much better he was looking at every opportunity he got.