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TRACY, Minn. (AP) - Joe Smarzik, who gained national attention 26 years ago when he placed a newspaper ad looking for a familly to eat Christmas dinner with, died last week on another holiday, Thanksgiving. He was 98.
The classified ad, in which Smarzik promised to "furnish the turkey," resulted in a long relationship with a minister's family.
It was so neat to know that he just came out of obscurity ... and touched so many lives," said Deanna Edwards, a music therapist from Logan, Utah, who publicized Smarzik's story worldwide.
Smarzik, of Walnut Grove, had been a farmer in northern Minnesota, an ice man in Walnut Grove, a carpenter in the Twin Cities area, an antique dealer and a remodeler of old houses.
He and his wife had divorced many years ago, and he had rebuffed attempts by his three children to keep up a relationship.
In 1977, about 20 years after seperating from his family, he placed his ad in the weekly Headlight-Herald in Tracy, where he lived.
"I was alone for so many Christmases, I thought I'd put the ad in the paper and see if anybody would invite me," he said later.
The Rev. Homer Dobson, the local Church of Christ pastor, and his wife, Betty made him part of their Christmas celebration.
It is a relationship that continued for more than 25 years, through Christmases, birthdays, shopping trips and clinic visits. In fact, it was Homer Dobson who took Smarzik to a hospital in Springfield two weeks ago when he wasn't feeling well.
Edwards learned about the story when she visited Dobson's church years ago. She visited Smarzik and later wrote a book, "Wanted: One Family."