In tribute: Mortgage loan officer friend to many

link Zala Smith

Staff writer

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Zala Smith was a hometown girl born on the Fourth of July who took pride in helping people find homes and in making Clovis a better place to live.

Smith, a longtime mortgage loan officer and member of numerous local boards and committees, died Saturday of complications from liver cancer at the age of 59.

Those who knew her said she was a friend to many, a catalyst for city development and “Aunt Zala” to countless people she’d helped either personally or in business.

Many of those feats, husband Dick Smith said, he’s only discovered in the past few days from neighbors’ kind words.

“She loved this community,” he said, “and people loved her. It’s pretty amazing, honestly. She was easy to love.”

The 1973 Clovis High graduate spent her final 15 years in Clovis, where was vital in the founding of both Clovis MainStreet and the Clovis Community College’s Cultural Arts Series. She served with numerous boards and committees that included the Clovis Board of Realtors, the Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce, the Clovis Home Builders Association, and the Clovis Municipal Schools Education Foundation.

“Zala was one of those people,” Clovis MainStreet President Lisa Dunagan said, “(who was) very intelligent, but not overbearing. Everybody likes to work with her. She’s the one who brings up the hard questions and gets things going, but you really felt like you’re a part of it.”

For her husband of 41 years, she was first the girl with the beautiful eyes and vibrant, infectious personality. Dick Smith was in Clovis because the Air Force decided it would be his third assignment, and it was through a friend he met a high school senior named Zala Williams at a defunct restaurant he said was reminiscent of the “American Graffiti” film.

“A guy I was stationed with in Turkey was dating her best friend,” Smith said. “He wanted to meet her at the Dog and Suds in downtown Clovis. Zala was with her. She set a Coke on the top of the car, and it fell over onto me. She was mortified, and I said, ‘Drinks are on me today.’”

The two dated soon after and married in December of 1973 at the base chapel. Their song was Chicago’s “Colour My World,” and they watched her favorite love story, “Casablanca,” every Valentine’s Day.

After living three years in Clovis, the two began to move around. He would normally find work in the health field, while she would work in real estate or finance. She first became a Realtor in Spokane, Washington, and was named the business’ rookie of the year before she was recruited to be a mortgage officer. Most of her work in the real estate field, including 14 of her 15 years after the two returned to Clovis, came in mortgage lending.

“She loved putting people into homes,” Dick Smith said. “She did about as much financial advising as she did mortgage lending.”

The two spent time in Tennessee, Washington, Europe, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and Zala found she missed the arts and entertainment of the bigger cities, and decided volunteering with CCC and MainStreet was the best way to bring those things to the community.

“She was so instrumental in the founding of the MainStreet program,” said Robyne Beaubien, former Clovis MainStreet executive director and current New Mexico MainStreet promotions program associate. “She served as president and did the executive director’s job for many years until they hired someone. I learned most of what I know about MainStreet from Zala.”

The Smiths believed in the downtown area of Clovis, and owned a building on the 300 block of Main that was used for the NBC television series “Three Wishes” starring musician Amy Grant. Dick Smith said the arrangement worked quite well, as NBC fixed up the building for them in exchange for a friendly rental rate.

The two spent much of their time trying to keep the Hotel Clovis alive. The building was purchased by the city in 2004, and gained both a reputation as a treasured landmark and a city albatross before it was renovated into the Hotel Clovis Lofts.

“She felt like the Hotel Clovis was the key to downtown, and it was a tipping factor,” Dick Smith said. “She felt like something needed to be done with that beautiful historic building.”

Zala fought liver cancer for the final six years of her life, and was aided by a transplant from a friend, but she mostly kept her medical issues private.

“She was graceful in her situation,” Dunagan said. “She was very private. She would say she was fine. You knew she wasn’t, but she wasn’t one to talk about her problems. It was always, ‘How can I help you?’”

Though she took a backseat on the final stages of Hotel Clovis’ renovations due to her health, she had already done plenty for the community, including countless hours putting together MainStreet’s Streetscape project, the Downtown Arts Festival and the annual Wine and Cheese Gala.

“She didn’t have an expectation to get the credit,” Beaubien said. “She was passionate about our community being a better place.”

Services are set for 4 p.m. Sunday at the Clovis Civic Center.