Star singer, media man Chester Smith of Modesto dies in Bay Area

Chester Smith started his career as a country music singer and radio broadcaster and built a television station empire based in the Modesto area that earned him millions and the respect of those he inspired.

He died Friday at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, according to the tour manager of his longtime friend, country music star Merle Haggard.

Smith became a country music star with his hit song "Wait a Little Longer, Please, Jesus" and his Northern California radio and television shows in the 1950s.

During his radio-TV announcer days of the 1940s through the 1960s, a who's who in country music worked with Smith. The names included Marty Robbins, Del Reeves, Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Cash, Hank Thompson, Jerry Lee Lewis and even rocker Chuck Berry.

Smith went on to create a media empire that stretched the length of the San Joaquin Valley and beyond, from Bakersfield to Oregon. He owned Modesto-based Sainte Partners II, which owns and operates TV stations in California and Oregon.

In 2001, Smith completed a two-year project with Haggard. The country gospel album, "California Blend" revived Smith's singing career in his early 70s.

"He was a hero in the media industry and entertainment industry," Frank Mull, Haggard's tour manager, said Friday. "He was someone to look up to."

Haggard was on tour in West Virginia when he learned of his friend's death from Smith's wife, Mull said.

Mull said Smith died Friday at Stanford University Medical Center. Smith's wife, Ann Lesley Smith, had been keeping Haggard and his wife informed about Smith's condition.

"Mr. Haggard and his wife had been in touch with Mr. Smith's wife for the last week," Mull said. He said Haggard did not wish to comment Friday.

"Mr. Smith's death was extremely difficult and he would not like to comment tonight," Mull said. "Call us back tomorrow."

Smith's roots in the Central Valley were established when his family moved from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl and settled in a migrant camp in Tranquility, a small town about 30 miles west of Fresno, according to the Modesto Radio Museum Web site.

Honored for radio work

Smith created Northern California's first Spanish-language radio station, and he later was honored for his work by the Latino Community Roundtable of Stanislaus County.

In an October 2002 article in The Bee, Smith said all the broadcasters who made fun of his Spanish programming in the late 1960s and 1970s missed an essential point.

"Before the Mexicans came to work in the fields, my people (Oklahomans from the Dust Bowl-era) were the braceros," Smith said. "And I have always known that the people who work the land end up owning the land."

In 2002, Smith was honored with the Modesto Area Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. MAMA co-founder Chris Murphy said Friday that Smith's musical talent on stage was matched by his ability to be a business visionary.

"It takes a smart businessman to make music successful," Murphy said of Smith. "He was an icon."

Modesto entertainment promoter Chris Ricci said Smith's career was a motivational force in his life.

"He was a musical genius," Ricci said Friday. "Chester Smith inspired me."

Ricci created the Xclamation Festival, an outdoor music concert that has attracted thousands to downtown Modesto for the past nine years.

Smith also received the Pioneer Award from the Christian Country Music Association in Nashville, Tenn., which recognizes groundbreakers in the areas of music and broadcasting.

In recent years, Smith loved performing in front of audiences at churches, said Pastor Herb Henry of Richland Faith Assembly of God in Ceres. Smith was a people person who never forgot where he came from, Henry said Friday.

Smith was scheduled to perform at Henry's church in July before he called to cancel because he was too ill, Henry said.

" 'I just want to leave singing and praising the Lord,' he said to me on the phone," Henry said. "I guess he knew his life was about to end."

Bee copy editor Kevin Valine contributed to this report.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or 578-2394.

This story was originally published August 8, 2008 at 11:34 PM with the headline "Star singer, media man Chester Smith of Modesto dies in Bay Area."