Walter J. Smith, musician, dies

Rodeo Beatniks is a "quartet of rootsy-rocky, jazzy-country, folksy-bluesy, retro-swingy troubadours," the group's website states.

The players "trade on their strengths without braggadocio and disguise their shortcomings without apology."

Since Rodeo Beatniks formed in 1993, Walter J. Smith had been a singer and songwriter for the group, playing suburban bars and coffee houses, his wife, Rebecca, said.

On Friday, Sept. 2, Mr. Smith, 62, a Chester County probation officer from 1978 to 1985, died of brain cancer at his home in Glenmoore.

The band played venues such as American Bar & Grill in Chester Springs and Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville, his wife said, and self-produced two CDs.

Raised in Malvern, Mr. Smith graduated from Great Valley High School in 1966, joined the Air Force Reserve, and after years of night classes earned a bachelor's degree in criminology at Villanova University in 1984, the year he turned 35.

During those night-class years, his wife said, he worked as a surveyor and as a counselor with the Devereux Foundation.

From 1985 to 2006, she said, Mr. Smith was a benefits consultant for her father's insurance firm, Roehrs & Co. in Exton.

Since 2006, she said, he had operated his own firm, Fairview Benefits Consultants, from his home in Glenmoore.

In his free time from 1995 through 2001, Mr. Smith also coached softball teams in Glenmoore for girls 6 through 12.

Besides his wife, Mr. Smith is survived by a son, Ian; daughters Caitlin and Julia; a brother; two sisters; and a granddaughter.

A life celebration was set from 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at Birmingham Friends Meeting, 1245 Birmingham Rd., followed by a 10 a.m. funeral service there, with burial in Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery.