Information learned in Tennessee Part 4
Because of the story mom had shared with me I knew dad had been married and divorced before WWII so I looked for that while I was in Tennessee.
According to mom the sequence was marriage, repeated infidelities by his wife, divorce, enlistment in Army, birth of child long after dad had disappeared from the scene.
I found the marriage record from February 1, 1942 and noticed she was older than dad. I also recognized daddy’s hand-writing:
It was a little creepy for me, but I found a family tree on ancestry.com posted by CharlotteMcGuire62 that listed dad as the father to Stephen Hugh Smith. Dad was the first of Jeanette’s 3 husbands (Charles McGuire had been her second husband). It listed dad’s birth November 23, 1906 and his death as February 1980. Not correct but close enough that someone had knowledge about him. But then mom had said a man had contacted her after dad’s death saying he was dad’s son and wanting part of dad’s estate.
Stephen Hugh Smith was born on December 20, 1942.
I couldn’t find the divorce, but dad’s induction date into the army as October 9, 1943.
So the actual sequence of events was marriage, maybe repeated infidelities by his wife, birth of child, divorce, enlistment in Army.
I was momentarily rattled when I ran across this, but in a minute I decided I didn’t care.
My dad was such an incredibly honorable man and good father that I believe he did the right thing back then just as he did all the time with us. I will never know what contributed to him leaving Tennessee for good and not having contact with anyone from there again. In my heart I believe he would never leave a child that was his.
Mom had said he never told us because he was afraid we would start to fear that he would abandon us too. When she told me I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard because dad was the most steadfastly loyal person I’d ever known and he would never have left us. After finding out the child was born before he divorced and enlisted I can really understand his desire to keep it secret.
The only question I have is who twisted the story? Did dad tell mom the straight story and she sugar-coated it for me or did he alter the sequence of events for her. My dad was almost painfully honest, so I suspect he laid it on the line for her. And I understand the sugar-coating. It was a bit of shock, but when all is said and done I trust my dad.
I did research and Stephen Hugh Smith served in Vietnam and died at the age of 55 in 1998 so I will never know what happened.