To know me, you have to know about my father. Albert Merriman Smith was known as 'Smitty' to his friends, US Presidents and people all across the globe.
'Smitty' attended Oglethorpe University in Georgia. He never graduated from college. But his skills as a writer and ability to always 'get the story' landed him from what is now known as The Atlanta Journal Constitution to the Dean of the White House Press Corps. Okay. Maybe he wasn't Dean of the White House Press Corps the first day on the job working for UPI (United Press International) in Washington, D.C. Never the less, in his time serving as Dean of the White House Press Corps., he had the distinction of ending every press conference with, 'Thank You, Mr. President.'
One of his most notable moments in journalism happened on a very somber day in Dallas, Texas in 1963 as President John F. Kennedy's motorcade made its way past throngs of onlookers.
It is said that knowing the difference between the sound of backfire and a gunshot was one of several things that kept my father ahead of the rest of the press that day. And not soon after arriving at the hospital where President Kennedy was being tended to, he grabbed the only phone left and dictated verbatim the story of JFK's death, which won him the Pulitzer Prize.
Following his dictation online, he made a mad dash to Air Force One where he was one of a handful of people who witnessed Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in as the next American President.
He is the author of four books, was a chain smoker and loved my mother passionately. My father died when I was 3 years old. His work, the way he captured a story and brought personalities to life in his books are all things near and dear to me.
Maybe this can provide enough information 'about me' to know that this is where I found my passion for news, my desire not to simply write the facts but look deeper into the human character and understand each person as he/she is. To me, that's what my father did best.
Today, I call it 'the good stuff.'
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