Where can one find a man who opens car doors for ladies, has a genuine love of all people everywhere, possesses a quick wit coupled with a delightful sense of humor and fun, and is great at following orders?
In Oriental, NC, that’s where! And guess what? Our mystery man is 90 years young! Tom Smith was told by his Captain while serving in the Navy during WWII, “Smith, don’t go and get yourself killed! You won’t be a d_ _ _ bit of good to me then.” Tom has been following those orders for the past 70 plus years, bringing his age to 90, turning 91 on January 29, 2015.
Those 90 have been used well, very well! He has spent:
- 80 years a member of the Baptist Church of Oriental. Tom joined the church when he was 10 years old and has been a life long member, like his parents, and grandparents before him, who actually helped start the church.
- 27 years Oriental Volunteer Fireman
- 67 years member of the Masonic Lodge, Master of the Lodge numerous times.
- 4 years serving in WWII in the Navy as an electrician and volunteer movie operator. Tom took part in every major invasion in Europe.
- 40 plus years business owner and entrepreneur.
When Tom was growing up almost all of the property in Oriental was farm land, but there used to be a pool hall in the field behind where Century 21 Sail/Loft Realty is now. Teams from all over the county would play baseball against each other there. There were also 5 high schools in the county and they would compete against each other in basketball.
Tom may have gotten his wonderful sense of humor from Miss Pearl Delamar whom Tom remembers as always being “very jolly.” Whenever her husband, Paul Delamar, and she would meet Tom along the street, she would always tell him a joke.
His kindness and love of people were most likely a legacy from his parents, William J. Smith, Jr. and Olive Herne Smith, whom Butch Hardison recalls as the most refined and kindest people he ever know. This family trait of caring for others showed up early in Tom:
When Representative Ned Delamar was about thirteen, he loved to pretend he was “Tarzan,” swinging from trees around his house. Unfortunately, one day a limb broke and Ned broke many bones in his fall. While recovering, he would sit by an open window in his house so he could visit with people. Tom, about 10 years old at the time, went by often to sit on the porch and talk with Ned, who, Tom said, always kept a great, positive attitude in spite of his injuries even as a young fellow. No wonder he went on to accomplish so very much for Pamlico County!
Tom was 11 years old when the Hurricane of 1933 (Hurricanes did not have names back then) hit Oriental. He remembers how Mr. Sargent, who was the first millionaire in Oriental, had a huge yacht which he used to rescue people from South River who were left hanging on up in the trees during that terrible storm. South River people were great carpenters and took several of their homes apart piece by piece, transported them on their fishing boats to relocate in Oriental and rebuilt them on and around Midyette Street where some are still standing. Pretty unique and impressive!
Dr. Daniels was an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor who took out a lot of tonsils, including Tom’s. He was also on the Town Board and was responsible for putting in sidewalks and curbs from the theater, to the park, the Steamer Restaurant and by the water. But all the roads in Oriental were dirt.when Tom was a boy. Since everybody walked everywhere it was real problem when it rained. The Powell Aid fund was created in the NC legislature to give country towns like Oriental money annually out of tax funds as a loan to pave the streets, one at a time. The first road in Oriental to be paved was the “Loop”, which started at the theater and went by the Methodist Church to the Neuse River and back up by the Marina. That pretty much took care of getting everyone around and to church without slogging through muddy streets when it rained.
Tom’s brother, Hubert, Post Master of Oriental for many years, was asked by the town to be town clerk. Hubert worked for Oriental for twenty years without collecting any pay for his services and was the person responsible for the town finally being able to retire the debt incurred from paving the roads. Tom is justifiably very proud of his brother for this unselfish service to their hometown as well as of Hubert’s exceptional military service. Hubert finished college with a degree in accounting the year the war started and joined the Air Force as a navigator of a B-17 plane in which he flew 50 missions over Germany and never got a single bullet in his plane! Much shrapnel however did hit the plane, tore it up and blew out the windows making for a terrible, harrowing experience.
Tom had been at Campbell College after graduating from HS in June 1941, but Pearl Harbor interrupted those plans as it did for so many other young men from Oriental. Growing up around the water, the Navy was the logical choice for service for many of them.
John Bond, whom Tom said was “the nicest guy in the world,” and Tom had been life-long best friends from when they first met at age 10-11 years old. They grew up together, went to school together, sailed together and went to dances together on the Party Boat, and later both served in the Navy.
The Party Boat, also named the “Wolf”, was an old fishing boat without the rigging which went from Oriental upriver to Minnesott Beach pavilion on Saturday nights in the summer for dances. The boat was owned by Mac Lewis, but when he went into the Navy, he had Dee Hardy take over. Often they would not get back to Oriental until 2 PM. Once in a while, the Party Boat would take some Marines, who asked for a ride, back over to Cherry Point, which was just being built at the time. That was an adventure as they came close to base with Marines boarding the ship to check it out with guns drawn! Sometimes, one of the Marines would use a flashlight to signal that it was just them on the Party Boat approaching.
This was the same “Party Boat,” on which John Bond finally got his first kiss from Fay Midyette, which started their 2 months of summer courtship before John joined the Navy and love letters alone had to do. It was Tom who had finally convinced Fay that John was sincere in all his “flirting” and trying to get her to go out with him by telling her that “John meant every word he said.”
John Bond and Tom also served together when both of their ships took part in the invasion of North Africa. John was then shipped to the Pacific and Tom remained in Europe for the remainder of the war and took part in every major invasion of Europe, including D-day and Marseille where Tom did get to go ashore and meet the French people. He had taken French in school, but said “it didn’t do him any good.” But in spite of the language barrier, he found the people to be very nice. Tom’s genuine love and delight in all people is captured in his simple statement; “People around the world are nice.” Marseille reminded him of New Bern with all the old fishing boats there back then.
During the war, Tom was in charge of “movie exchange” on his ship. Each ship received 6 movies and when in peaceful waters, Tom was sent off in a landing craft to other ships, including destroyers and aircraft carriers, to make an exchange, being careful not to trade a bad movie for a good one. Sometimes after the deal was done, he would be asked where he wanted to go and Tom would always say, “Take me to Oriental,” which would always evoke the same response: “Where the h _ _ _ is Oriental?!”
This Navy experience of being an electrician and running movies on ship served Tom well when he finally did get back to Oriental. Tom, his brother and father owned the movie theater in Oriental along with an appliance store. Butch Hardison has fond memories of going to the movie theater, called the Mart Theater, when he was a boy and lying on the floor up front and watching movies like The Three Stooges. He remembers that the Smith men would get ice from their grandfather’s ice house and using ice picks, would put big, 200-300 lb. blocks on either side of a squirrel cage fan that blew the air through a chute from the stage in the back of the building to keep the theater cool.
After the railroad stopped running in Oriental in the late 50’s, trailer trucks would transport the produce and seafood, but they were not refrigerated like the railroad cars were. The icehouse would grind up ice and shoot it into the trailers to keep the food cold during transportation. Catching shrimp began in 1945 in this area and the river back then was full of all kinds of fish. “You could catch anything you wanted depending on where you anchored.”
After the war, Tom came home and married Lillie Mae Thompson. They were married for 23 years and had a son, Thomas William Smith, Jr. Sadly, Huntington’s disease claimed both of their lives as well as their grandson’s, Thomas (T.W.) William Smith, III at age 26 years.
In 1969, Tom married Anne Hughes Stevenson and also inherited three beautiful, intelligent daughters. Anne’s first husband was Joe Stevenson, a fighter plane and B-17 pilot during the war. Joe and Anne lived in Thailand, Germany, Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas. In 1962, when their youngest daughter, Mary Hughes Stevenson, was 7 years old, Joe passed away in Walter Reed Hospital. Anne’s father was a customer of Tom’s and became a good friend in the course of doing work for him in his home in New Bern, where Tom would often stop by to visit. Daddy played “Match Maker” and Tom and Anne married. After falling in love with Anne, it wasn’t too long before Tom fell in love with Mary and her sisters, Sign of Grace (Grace) and Joanne. He was blessed with another family to love and they were blessed by all that “Daddy love” from Tom. All the girls have gone on and achieved great success in their educations, careers and lives. Tom is also blessed that his daughter-in-law, Joann, lives close by in Minnesott Beach.
During his years in business, Tom would throw huge parties inviting 150 people with about 75 usually showing up at his home. He would generously provide all the food. Once he asked Brantley Norman if he would cook the chicken and Brantley said he would, if Tom would buy it. For cooking all that chicken, he only charged Tom $5.00.
“I’ve tried to be an honorable person. I love everybody. I’ve grown up surrounded by wonderful people and then, by all the wonderful people who have come to Oriental since then. I love Oriental. We’ve seen a lot of the world, but I still love Oriental best. I wouldn’t want to be any other place.”
Oriental wouldn’t want it any other way either! We are grateful for Tom Smith, for his love and strength of character, his great memory and intellect, his quick wit and delightful charm. Wish there were many more like him! Thank you, Tom. We love you!
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Interview/Story written by Lorraine M. Yaeger
Photo by Chuck Hill