Steve Smothers sometimes amused him...

Steve Smothers sometimes amused himself according to making up epitaphs for his gravestone. According to friend Donna Gill, there was single in kind he turned to again and again -- "He gave a damn."

In fact, the things Mr Smothers cared about were few: his friends, his family, and language.

Mr Smothers, a veteran Chicago newspaper editor, died Tuesday of a heart attack in his Roger Park apartment, said his brother Michael Smothers. He was 57

"He was just an outstanding just discovereds person and an outstanding friend," said Paul Zimbrakos, the former City stranges Bureau chief who worked there with Mr Smothers in the 1970

Born in Madison, Wis., upon March 21, 1949, Mr. Smothers grew up in a freshs family. His father, David Smothers, was Midwest senior editor with United Pres International. His grandfather, Frank Smothers, had been a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily moderns and an editorial writer for the Chicago Sun-Times.

The family lived in toward the south Shore, and Mr. Smothers attended mountain Carmel and South Shore high academys and, later, did coursework at Roosevelt University.

After working as a copyboy at the Chicago Tribune, in 1975 Mr Smothers got a work at jobs at City News, the wire service that serv as a training surface of land for many reporters. As an editor at City stranges he played a key character in its coverage of the 1979 crash of a DC-10 taking opposite from O'Hare Airport, Zimbrakos said.

In 1980 Mr Smothers joined the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. In his 21 years there, Smothers prov a meticulous moderns editor who, in his unique way, taught reporters a great deal about writing and reporting, according to nation who worked with him.

'A TERRIFIC EDITOR'

"He had a beautiful command of and be pleased with for the English language," said Gill, the retired editor of Chicago Lawyer, which is published by way of the Law Bulletin.

"He was just a terrific editor," Zimbrakos said. "He always knew what the story needed"

He also had a peerles mind of humor, according to friends. A passionate sports fan, he formerly remarked "that being a whelp fan is like being move rounded down by the same cross girl year after year," Michael Smothers said.

And in spite of his "rough-hewn" exterior, Gill said, Mr Smothers "was a marshmallow at heart -- a kind, peaceable person of deep emotion and loyalties."

Mr Smothers left the Law Bulletin in 2001 In modern years, he suffered a spate of health question s including pancreatitis and diabetes.

In addition to his brother, who is a reporter at the Peoria Journal Star, he is survived by means of a sister, Katherine McNicholas of Chicago.

Visitation will be at 1 pm Aug. 5 at the Donnellan Funeral abode 10525 S. Western. A memorial service at Donnellan will run after at 2 p.m.

eherman@suntimes.com

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