HERITAGE WALL | onealtaxserevice

1st Generation ~ Active Tax Preparer 1942 - 1955

Loretta Smith started the tax office in 1942. Very bold and uncommon for that era. She had been one of Henry Blocks secretary's prior to that and "thought she could do taxes on her own". In recent years, we have had clients that have never had their taxes done by anyone but our family. They had been to 4 generations of our family business. We are very proud of that and proud of all her hard work. At the time of her passing she had grown the business to an estimated 150 clients.

2nd Generation ~ Active Tax Preparer 1956 - 1968

Jeanette (Smith) O'Neal took over the business in 1956 after her mother had passed away. She was a respected woman and very smart. We are very thankful that she respected her mothers hard work, and continued the business. She had gotten sick in 1968 and struggled to complete the season that year. She passed away 2 days after tax season ended. Her son Robert O'Neal had been working with her in the office, took the reigns and was able to finish the season successfully. At the time of her passing she had grown the business to an estimated 300 clients.

3rd Generation ~ Active Tax Preparer 1968 - 2003

Robert O'Neal inherited the business with a trial by fire, mid tax season 1968. He overcame many obstacles along the way, and also moved the office from St Louis, to its current location in Bonne Terre. From dining room tables, home-made desks, offices over drug stores, and looking over the top of his glasses with a glare only Dad could give... but he was always ready to help people out with his knowledge and experience. He grew the office from 300 to around 1,700 clients and he is missed very much every day!

3rd Generation Carla O'Neal ~ Active Processor and Support 1969 - Retired

Carla began her career with us in 1969 after marrying Robert. She evolved into preparing state tax returns back in the hand written days. She has been the backbone of our business working behind the scenes making sure everything happened in the order it needed to be done. When the office switched from handwritten to computerized in the early 80's, she was in charge of making sure all of the returns were sent electronically and all administrative duties during her tenure. Carla has since retired from the day to day duties of the business, but still maintains majority ownership and does many of the back office tasks needed to keep things running smoothly.