Video: Smithville Brings Back Brasfield Fest

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SMITHVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — Smithville is celebrating another year of renaissance following the devastating tornado that killed 16 residents on April 27, 2011.

On Saturday Smithville residents gathered at the city park. There was music. A vintage John Deere Ice Cream making machine. And a Rod Brasfield impersonator.

It was the annual Rod Brasfield Festival, in honor of Smithville’s favorite son, who went to Nashville and performed comedy at the Grand Old Opry with the legendary Minnie Pearl.

Brasfield died in 1958 but never forgot his Smithville roots and is buried at a nearby cemetery.

Jimmy Dabbs is member of the city board. He says they wanted to bring the festival back, to help the community come together.

“We wanted to bring it back,” he says. “They had it for sixteen years and we quit for about sixteen years. But since the tornado of 2011, we’ve come back and wanted to get everything started back up and bring people into town where they can see what we got after the tornado.”

The town of Smithville certainly has come a long way since that devastating tornado of 2011 as evidenced by this brand new town hall and police station erected on Highway 25.

And further down Highway 25 is the new Smithville Baptist Church building, and the state of the art gymnasium at Smithville School which can serve as a shelter in case another tornado or other natural disaster hits.

“Things are progressing good right now,” Dabbs explains. “You know its not happening overnight. It’s been three years since the tornado even though we loss 197 water meters and sixteen somethings you’re never going to recover. But as we go on maybe the festival will bring people into town and may want to move into town you know there’s lots all over town for sale, you may want to build a house.”

Indeed one house still under construction will eventually be the home of the mayor’s daughter.

And Dabbs says the city is laying down a new walking and jogging track adjacent to the city softball fields. Smithville is indeed a town on the move.