By Eilene Lyon
Loren Oscar Smith (1911–1974)
“Loren was only six when his mother died.… I was often admonished during those years that I should look after my younger brother.… I don’t think at that age I could have accepted all that responsibility. In any event Loren ended up something of a juvenile delinquent.”
While living in Jacksonville, Florida, around 1940, he married a woman named Ann Ruth Alexander, but they soon divorced. Loren served in both the Army and Navy during WWII.
After his service, he returned west and worked for the phone company, like his brother Cliff. He married Mary O. “Bonnie” Smith in 1943 and nine months later they had a set of twins, a boy and girl. The family settled in Post Falls east of Spokane in 1960.
The last of the seven Smith children born, Loren was the second to pass away. Only he and Ada became grandparents.
Sources:
Smith, Laurence. “The Passing Parade.” February 15, 1990.
Ancestry.com
Myricopia 
Wow… out of seven children, only two became grandparents. That is so very rare for the time. Seems, in the end, all worked out for him 🙂
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Few kids and few grandkids. Very unusual for a large group of siblings in that era. Loren does seem to have turned out okay, but he died so much younger than his siblings.
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No kidding. I look at my mother’s side and of the 15 kids (my grandmother and her siblings) there were, lemme see… about 24 grandkids (I’m surely missing some) and then, the kids of those, well, I lost count at 50….
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In my generation, I have five cousins. My dad had at least 37. I can hardly imagine. A family the size of your grandmother’s is actually unusually large! I’ve found some, especially with multiple marriages, but infrequent.
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First cousins on my mother’s side: we’re 11.
The French Canadians had big families. Catholic church was particularly pushy. 🙄
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Yeah, there was that imperative to go forth…
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They had way too much power – in the bedroom and elsewhere!
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Still do!
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A lot less here. French Quebecers are a lot less present at weekly mass…
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I guess I have to say “good.”
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It’s what I say, too
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Now I’m curious. What shenanigans did he get up to that he was referred to as a juvenile delinquent?
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Grandpa didn’t bother to elaborate, so I have no idea. Loren and Grandpa had a stepmother that none of the Smith kids liked. Grandpa never even mentions her in any of his memoirs. I was astonished when I discovered her. Maybe some of those delinquent things had some root in the animosity toward the stepmother.
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A kid loses his mother young, becomes something of a juvenile delinquent and then serves in WW2, not just in the Army but the Navy as well? There’s a lot of bite to this bio.
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It’s tough to cover a life in 150 words, but I’m glad Grandpa and I were able to convey a good deal about his siblings in this series. It’s too bad I never met any of them. I have communicated with Loren’s daughter (both twins are still living).
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Loren sounds as though he had a rough time growing up.
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A few years after Lila (mother) died, the father remarried. No one liked her. I suspect the grown children were especially disparaging and it rubbed off on the younger boys, Laurence and Loren. Even so, I think Moscow was probably a very nice place to grow up.
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Tidbits of lives- so intriguing. In examining the old photographs, have you noticed a similarity in looks?
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Certainly when the boys were younger, there was a lot of similarity. When older, Leon and Cliff still looked similar, but very different in overall size. Cliff wound up the larger of the two.
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Well this was just enough to make me want more! A juvenile delinquent, eh? Bet there are some juicy stories there!
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Grandpa didn’t bother to fill me in, either!
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Too bad!
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It figures that the family rebel was one of the only ones to have children. Interesting…
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I wonder, if he hadn’t had twins, would they have had a second child?
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Interesting thought!
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You learned a lot of family history while you were in Moscow, Idaho Eilene. The portraits of children or adults always seem so stiff and formal and I know I have commented to that effect in the past. It begs the question: did the photographer not say “smile and say cheese” back in the day?
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I’m sure it was more like, “Sit still, or else!!”
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Yes, that was probably the scenario. 🙂
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