By MELANIE POOLE / Special to the Reporter

The Veteran of the Week is sponsored by the National Veterans Shrine and Register of Honor at the American Village — honoring America’s veterans and telling the stories of their service and sacrifice for the cause of liberty.

“The American Village is pleased to join the Shelby County Reporter in recognizing Private Sim Thorton Smitherman as Veteran of the Week,” American Village founder and CEO Tom Walker said. “He is representative of the hundreds of thousands of Alabamians who have risked it all for the sake of our country and its freedom. To all veterans we owe a debt we can never fully repay.”

Visit the website, Veteransregisterofhonor.com, today and add your loved ones to the Register of Honor. Help us honor, recognize, respect and remember our country’s veterans.

Here are highlights about this week’s Veteran of the Week: Sim Smitherman was born in Randolph, Bibb County, AL on Oct. 6, 1891. He was the son of James Pinkney of Bibb County and Margaret “Maggie” (Fancher) Smitherman of Shelby County. He married Gracie Lillian Kelley on Sept. 16, 1917. They would have eight children. Sim Smitherman served in World War I as a Private with Company F, 317^th Infantry Division, United States Army. He died in 1950 in Centreville, AL at the age of 58.

Sim fathered a long line of servicemen. Three of his four sons and three grandsons served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Sim Thorton Smitherman, Jr., (1927-1956) served in the United States Navy during WWII. He lied about his age in order to enlist. He and his future wife Helen Shirley Bishop (1923-2015) met while serving in the Navy. Howard R. Smitherman (1934-1996) also served in the Navy. Another son, Clayton Eugene Smitherman (1932-1994), was a Private First Class, U.S. Army, and served in the Korean War. Sim Smitherman’s grandson and namesake Sim Thorton Smitherman, III (1945-2016), was a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran. Grandson Tony Morgan Smitherman (1947-2004), served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Another grandson, John Leslie Smitherman (1948-1993), served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War.