Name/Title
Richard “Red” Smith, Smith's Turkey CallsEntry/Object ID
CTC001B00025Description
Richard “Red” Smith, 80, passed away peacefully at home on May 12, 2026. Born on June 15, 1945, to the late Richard D. and Mabel G. (Lyons) Smith, he was a dairy farmer until he retired. A family man, he loved his grandkids and was a friend to many…even if they might call him stubborn! Most of the community called him “Red” or “King Richard”.
Growing up in the ridges of Perry County, PA, Red enjoyed the outdoors and was especially passionate about turkey hunting. He shared his knowledge with many others and helped countless hunters improve their skills and appreciation for the sport. He was also a fan of college football, major league baseball, and racing, and enjoyed following the games and seasons throughout the years.
But Red loved calling in the wild turkey and sharing his knowledge of these feathered creatures with others! You didn’t want to be a turkey in the 1960s to the 1990s in this part of PA. Several prominent turkey hunting families pursued their passion there: Rohm, Ernest, Kochenderfer, Fleisher, Shuman, Boyer, Zent, Lesh, and Smith.
He was shot two different times in the turkey woods by other hunters…in both cases, he was hospitalized in critical condition. Yet nothing could keep Red out of the woods, and he likely killed more turkeys than one should speak of. He was passionate about fall hunting, and loved the sound of a gobble in the spring!
Red was a pioneer in the turkey-calling world. He had a major part in organizing the first U.S. Open Calling Championships in Blain, Pennsylvania. He had great respect for the late Dick Kirby, affectionately referring to him as the “Hairdresser.” It was Red who gave Dick his first mouth-calling tutorial and helped get him started in the turkey-calling circuit by building mouth calls for him. They hunted together and were lifelong friends!
Red hunted with and sold turkey calls for Ben Rogers Lee. Red said Ben paid him five cents for every dollar in sales of Ben Lee Calls. When Rob Keck was living in Perry County and teaching in Blain Elementary back in the 1970-1980s, Red and Rob spent countless hours practicing on their ‘mouth callers’ that Red built in Red's basement, getting ready for the next calling competition!
Some of Red's best stories came out when he would hunt with Billy O’Daniels and Skeet Thomas in South Carolina. Red always chided” Those Southern Boys don’t know how to kill gobblers after 8 A.M." He hunted fall and spring with other true legends of the turkey woods. Men like Lewis Stowe, D. D. Adams, Chester “ Chet” Lesh, Charlie Newlan, Wayne “Kokie” Kochenderfer, Frank Kochenderfer, Wayne Weibley, Denny Levella, George Fleisher, Glen Fleisher, Terry and Robby Rohm, Frank Piper, Dale Ernest, Dean Ernest, Larry McMillen, Joe Saylor, Mick Reed, Rob Keck, to name a few.
Red's favorite call to use was the “mouth caller.” He was quick to credit others for their skill. He would say, “The best to my ear to run a mouth caller overall is Matt Van Cise.” His favorite turkey vocalization to make in the woods or on stage was ‘The Cutt of a Hen.” The best to ever do it, in his opinion, was Chester “ Chet” Lesh of Ickesburg, PA. He admired Denny Gulvas for having the sweetest yelp of the hen turkey.
His real pride and joy were his son Scott and grandson Ben ( “Benjamin when seriously talking turkeys). Scott won several state Junior Level Calling Championships and the US Open Junior Calling Championships in 1978. In recent years, Red would always comment on how well Benjamin was calling and how on top of his program he was!
Matt Zeigler fondly recalls some experiences with Red: “On April 17, 2016, Red and I went on our first ever pre-season road trip around the county. I’ll never forget his excitement when we heard the first gobbler of the morning. Red was jumping up and down with emotions running high, as he had never heard a gobble before. I’ll never forget his excitement! He would keep track of how many we heard that morning, and the next day in church several turkey hunters would confirm the number- due to Red's chatty circle of friends!”
Zeigler said that if you knew Red, he liked to talk on the phone, and he was the only one that would talk, and he would get what he had to say out and end with “OK bye. " Click. Many times you only got to say "Hello"! Out of turkey season, Matt said, “He would call me on occasion about local sports or how my boys were doing in sports or school. In spring turkey season, with his health declining, he would call daily on how many gobblers I’d heard. I learned quickly you didn’t want to give him too much information cause he didn’t keep anything a secret!”
The last few years, Red liked Zeigler to send sound files of his mouth calling. “He liked to hear my sons calling too. He would critique the hell out of it- usually he would say, ‘Your cutting needs to be sharper,” Zeigler laughed. “I will miss those calls,” he closed.Create Date
June 21, 2026Update Date
June 21, 2026
