NELSONVILLE, Ohio — A Haydenville veteran whose remains were found after missing in action for over 75 years will be laid to rest in Doanville tomorrow.
U.S. Army Cpl. Lawrence A. Smith was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division and went missing in action during the Korean War.
Cpl. Smith was reported missing in the vicinity of Yongsan, South Korea, on Aug. 6, 1950, at age 20. His remains were identified Nov. 14, 2025.
“His infantry that he was in was one of the first ones to actually be in combat,” Kim Smith, Lawrence Smith’s niece, told the Independent. The experience of bringing their missing family member home has been overwhelming, amazing and resolute, she said.
“It’s been overwhelmingly beautiful, but very intense emotion,” Kim Smith said.
He returned to Ohio last Friday, May 22, and his funeral will take place Thursday, May 28, with visitation at 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at Valley Church, 17890 Akron Road, Buchtel. At 1:30 p.m. there will be a procession to Greenlawn Cemetery, 15550 Elm Rock Road, Nelsonville, where a funeral with military honors will take place.
Only two of Lawrence Smith’s immediate relatives are still living, Kim Smith said: his younger brother and a first cousin.
“Grandma was very good at making sure you know we remember Lawrence and who he was and things, and she would watch the news when the news reporters would go over,” Kim Smith said. “After he went missing, she never had that closure.”
Over a dozen years ago, the military approached her family for their DNA in their search, which is ultimately how Lawrence was found.
“They were finally able to narrow down all of Lawrence’s remains and reached out to my dad at the end of 2025 to say that they had been able to find him,” Kim Smith said.
Lawrence Smith returned to Ohio via a military flight to John Glenn International Airport in Columbus on May 22, the Friday before Memorial Day.
“They actually drove us right up onto the tarmac,” Kim Smith said. “As his plane came up to where we were, no more planes were allowed to land or leave the airport. … It was completely silent, and as he pulled up and stopped. The airport was quiet, and the only thing you could hear was the honor guard doing their salute.”
A military guard then brought the casket down from the plane, where the family stood alongside their pastor, who led them in prayer.
“And then they marched him off to the hearse, and it was, you can’t even describe it with words, the emotion and the feeling of knowing that he’s here,” Kim Smith said.
Kim Smith said that the National Guard helped the family to make arrangements and that her uncle’s remains were accompanied by a military chaperone who “did not leave his side … all the way from the airport to Nelsonville.”
The Ohio State Highway Patrol and Columbus police escorted the hearse from Columbus to Logan to Haydenville and finally Nelsonville, followed by a procession including the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ohio District 12 and various other organizations.
Ralph Reynolds, POW/MIA chairman of the VFW Department of Ohio, works with the military and veterans’ families and communities to “coordinate the program, the honors.”
“There was all the family, there were fire trucks, there were motorcycle riders from different groups, just a bunch of people,” Kim Smith said. “That was beautiful and overwhelming, and just — you just can’t even hardly believe that it’s happening.”
Kim Smith said the public is invited to pay their respects at Lawrence Smith’s funeral at the church and cemetery, although the family asks that no recordings or photographs be made in the church; photos are OK in the cemetery.
Lawrence Smith was one of fewer than 60 POW/MIA Korean War veterans the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified last year. Around 7,500 Americans are still unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the agency.
“We had no idea that they never give up on bringing, trying to bring every soldier home,” Kim Smith said. “They went 76 years … trying to bring my uncle home … The Smith family really cannot thank the military for all that they’ve done.”
Reynolds said that an estimated 80,000 Americans remain missing in action since World War II. Some of those missing served in Vietnam, as Reynolds did.
“I’ve got friends that I serve beside that are still from Ohio that are still listed as missing in action today from Vietnam, and that has always been my, my promise… to my brothers and sisters in Vietnam, that if I made it home, they would never be forgotten,” Reynolds said. “That’s our promise to our comrades, is they will never be forgotten.”
Disclosure: Athens County Independent Creative Director Jen Bartlett is married to Lawrence Smith’s great-nephew and connected us with the family for this story.
