He was born on the Smith farm in Nolensville, Tennessee, but
grew up inMuskogee, Oklahoma, where his father was postmaster.
When his grandfather Smith died, my father returned to the
farm to help for a year.In Muskogee High School, he was active
in the debating club. At age 18, he did some prep work,
hoping to be admitted to the United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis. Instead, he joined the Army Signal Corps, the start
of the Air Force, and learned to fly in Illinois. At the end of
WW I, he resigned his commission as a Lieutenant. In june 1921,
he married my mother in Muskogee, where I was born on July 1,
1924. When I was six months old, we moved to Dallas, to the
suburb called Highland Park. In 1927, we moved into a new
house at 4420 Livingston, a block away from the elementary
school, Bradfield. Janet, Miles, and Carolyn were born in
Dallas. My father was active in the oil business during the
20's and 30's, first with Shell and later as an independent
oilman. When WW II started, my father went to Canada to join
the RCAF, later changing to the USAF. At the end of the war,
he and my mother spent two years in Japan. Carolyn joined them
for one year. When he retired, he was a Lt. Colonel. My
parents then lived in the San Francisco suburb of Vallejo. Both
are buried in the Golden Gate Military Cemetery in San Bruno,
San Francisco. While my father was in the Air Force, my
mother kept house while the four of us, Janet, Miles, Carolyn
and I, went to Rice University. This was a great thing, since
at that time there was no tuition at Rice.
