Verda Smith

Cemetery for Hugh and Verda Smith

Cemetery for Hugh and Verda Smith

Gale / Hugh Smith, Verda Smith / /

I recently made a visit to Ottawa Hills Cemetery to see the graves for mom and dad. I had contacted the cemetery and they emailed me maps to help in locating their graves. Their graves are in section EE and plot 84.

Map of Ottawa Hills Cemetery

cemetery-mom-dad

Bear in mind this comes from someone who deeply desires cremation. Nuke me and throw my ashes to the winds. I have never been particularly enamored with the idea of someone I love rotting in the ground.

This particular cemetery must not allow grave stones. I’m sure mom ordered the brass plate because that’s what was allowed at the time of dad’s death. I found them very depressing. With all the freezing and thawing of the ground in that part of the country the plates were all sinking down into the soil and there was no way to make them look good. Personally, if I were to stick someone in the ground I would want a marble stone that would stand for many, many years.

When mom chose the plot there was a pine tree and dogwood very near that I thought dad would like. Now there is no dogwood, no pine, only a very large tree — I couldn’t tell what it was.  Currently, their graves are located by the large tree in the center of the picture below. Who knows what it will look like in 10, 20, 30 years from now.

cemetery

Homes in Toledo

Homes in Toledo

Gale / Hugh Smith, Verda Smith / /

It was easy to recognize the house at 5723 Yermo even though the lilac bushes along both side of the back yard were gone, and the poplar trees along the back of the lot were gone. What had been new construction when mom and dad built is now a street lined with huge trees. Amazing what 30 years will do for trees.

In grade school my best friend lived across the street in the house one to the right of ours. When I looked across from our front door to her front door it appeared to be a mile away. Now I see they were small front yards, narrow roads, and her door was barely a hop and skip away.

The perfectly manicured yard that daddy maintained was no more, but still after all these years it looks like a really solid house. My bedroom window was the one to the right of the porch. I spent a lot of time looking out that window.

5723-yermo

Next stop was the high school Rick and I both attended — Whitmer High School. It looked smaller too.

whitmer-hs

Last stop was the last house they built on Raganwoods. Another perfectly manicured yard gone to pot. The TV antenna that Josh used to climb was gone. Huge trees had replaced the ones dad had planted. I was told the neighborhood is not going in a good direction.

raganwoods

This will hopefully be my final trip down memory lane in Toledo. I don’t have good memories and am not fond of the town and hope I have no reason to go back again.

Cartoon from Mamie Elton

Cartoon from Mamie Elton

Gale / Gale Smith, Mamie Elton, Verda Smith / , /

Mom sent this cartoon to me the day Josh was born and addressed to the hospital. On the back was a note

Gale – your grandmother sent this to me the day you were born

I’ve attached a PDF at the bottom of the cartoon and mom’s note. I hope Stacey and Brandy may continue the tradition and mail it to their daughters on the day of the birth of their first child.

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Hugh and Verda Engagement Portraits

Gale / Hugh Smith, Smiths, Verda Smith / , /

Thank heavens for Photoshop Photo Merge. I had to scan these large portraits in two sections and then get them back together. I tried it manually and there was such a bad difference in scanning exposure it wasn’t working. Photo merge did a beautiful job. All I did was clean up flaws in scratches and brighten each image up a little.  Full size originals are available for download at the bottom of this post.

Speaking of beautiful — they were a gorgeous couple. Dad with his dark good looks and mom with her Nordic beauty.

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Coast Guard SPAR in World War II

Coast Guard SPAR in World War II

Gale / Smiths, Verda Smith / , , , , /

I remember several stories mom told about her time in the SPARS. When she wanted to enlist, which would without question take her far from home (although not leaving the US), she asked for her parents’ permission and grandpa initially said no until grandma had a chance to talk him into letting mom go.

NOTE: SPARS was the nickname for the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, created 23 November 1942 with the signing of Public Law 773 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The name is a contraction of the Coast Guard motto: Semper Paratus and its English translation Always Ready. The name also refers to a spar in nautical usage. Like the other women’s reserves, such as the Women’s Army Corps and the Navy WAVES, it was created to free men from stateside service in order to fight overseas. — from Wikipedia.com

NOTE: After the comment below from Tom Hough I have added a link to a movie made about another woman who joined the SPARS in WWII  “My Mother was a Coast Guard SPAR”.]

There’s a newspaper article that I don’t have about her breaking the all time typing record when she tested for entry into the SPARs. I believe it was 91 WPM. I’ll add it to this post if I get a copy of it.

I called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in DC and they sent me a proof of the information mom submitted when she registered. Her dates of service in the SPARS were from April 6, 1944 to April 18, 1946. Her rank was YN1 with a American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal.

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She was sent to Fort Lauderdale for training where they had commandeered large luxury hotels to house the recruits.

The uniform she was required to wear included really unattractive shoes which mom would switch out for more attractive, feminine open toe shoes. Each time she was caught with the wrong shoes her punishment was to wash the hotel ballroom floor with a toothbrush. This punishment didn’t seem to deter mom because she said she washed that floor on several occassions.

She told me of not eating all day so she could eat a doughnut. Her way of watching her weight.

After training she was sent to work in Washington, DC as a legal secretary. She attended a lot of embassy parties and was engaged to marry more than once while there.

When FDR died she, along with most people in the US, was devastated. She felt it was an enormous honor when she was selected as one of the people to march in the funeral procession April 14, 1945.

She kept this article that refers to the SPARs even though she wasn’t destined for Alaska.

I have this picture because I helped her register with the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It’s a beautiful memorial and I would recommend a visit for anyone if they happen to be in DC and at Arlington Cemetary — you can look up mom on the registry when you’re there — this is the photo we submitted.

The last thing I have from her military service is a picture of she and Gibby. Gibby was from High Point, NC and they were inseparable friends. We went to visit Gibby when I was 12 years old. Note that mom had a different hat and scarf on than Gibby. I wonder if this was another fashion statement and I wish the photograph showed their shoes too so we could see what mom was wearing.