Merton Dee Smith

My uncle Dee was a very sweet man, and he loved to go fishing. I remember him doing very well with that past time when he was retired and living near Lake Isabella in California. In two of the three pictures I have of uncle Dee, he either has a fishing rod in his hands or some fish he just caught!

He was born in Kansas January 2, 1903, to Isaac Randall Smith and his wife, Mattie Estella Scott Smith. He had one older brother, Bertle Haze (don't ask me where my grandparents came up with that name!), and later two more younger brothers, Lawrence (Larry) Benton and Halley Dale (my father, who was named after Halley's comet which passed by the Earth in 1910 the year he was born), and one sister, Eeva Delight Smith.

The family lived in Kansas until sometime after 1922 when they moved to California for my grandfather's health. He had asthma, and could not tolerate the dust bowl days of Kansas any longer. Sadly, he only lived a short time after they moved to California, and passed away August 1, 1928, while living in Venice, California. At the time of his death he had been working as a real estate broker per a 1928 U.S. City Directory Listing.

In 1930, my uncle Dee was married to his wife Alpha Omega Cox (who was from Texas), and had a two year old son, Darold Bruce Smith. They were living in Venice in the "back house" of my Uncle Larry's home at 1372 Alexandria Way in Venice, which may have actually been Vienna Way, the next street over. Dee was listed in a 1928 California Directory listing living at that address and working as an auto mechanic.

I know my dad's family owned a garage called Washington Garage, Smith Brothers, which was at the corner of Lincoln and Washington Boulevard's in Venice, so perhaps that is where all the brothers worked. The place where uncle Dee and uncle Larry were living with their families was only a couple of blocks from where my dad was living with his mother, sister, and older brother, Bertle, during the 1930 U.S. Census. At that time my father's occupation was listed as a transfer driver, but he also probably worked in the garage with his brothers. Times were hard back in those days during The Great Depression, so everyone had to work as hard as they could just to get by!

By 1936, my uncle Dee had moved to 134 Rialto Avenue, again, not far from his brother's and mothers' homes in Venice. His occupation was listed as a house painter, which he may have taken up since his brother Larry was also a painter. Uncle Larry later became the superintendent of the paint department for Walt Disney at Disneyland in Anaheim. We had fun going there when it opened in 1955, thanks to my uncle Larry.

By the 1940 U.S. Census, uncle Dee and aunt Alpha are living at 2713 Washington Boulevard in Venice, with their 11 year old son Darold Bruce. They were renting their home for $20 per month. Uncle Dee was listed as an auto mechanic in an automobile repair shop, where he was listed as an "employee", so maybe this wasn't the Washington Garage, Smith Brothers place. However, I tend to think it might have been their garage, because under income Dee lists zero, so if it was the Smith Brothers Garage, maybe the brothers did not take a salary, but simply lived off the profits of the shop. By 1940, my dad was listed in the U.S. Census as a bus driver for the City Transit Department of Los Angeles, so maybe the Smith brothers no longer owned their garage by that time.

Also living in the home with them was Alpha's sister, Hazel Cox, age 22, who was listed as a PBX Operator in a retail department store, and her annual income was $740 that year for the 42 weeks she worked in 1939. Next door to Dee, Alpha, Darold and Hazel, appears to be Alpha and Hazel's brother, Bruce Cox, also listed as an auto mechanic, with an annual income of $1,200 for the 52 weeks he worked in 1939. In the home with him was his wife, Ruth, and their children, Carolyn, and Charles. Bruce was born in Texas, and Ruth in Kansas, and their daughter in Missouri and son in Iowa. They were paying $22 per month rent for their home. Previously, in 1935, they had been living in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri.

When Dee completed his U. S. World War II Draft Registration Card, he was still living at 2713 Washington Boulevard in Venice,California, and was working for himself at a garage shown to be at the same address.

During the 1950's uncle Dee and aunt Alpha lived in Kagel Canyon in the San Fernando Valley, which is also where we lived from about 1955 to 1963. Uncle Dee helped to get my dad a job at Consolidated Rock Products Company in San Fernando around 1955. We moved to Kagel Canyon from the Simi Valley after my dad got the job at CONROCK. Previously we had been living at my great aunt Thelma and great uncle Steve's guest house in Santa Susanna for a year, and before that, in rural Whittier from the time I was born until about 1954.

I remember uncle Dee and my dad both working at CONROCK in about 1958 and going to a company fish fry at either Refugio or Carpenteria State Beach. I have a picture of my uncle Dee at the fish fry holding a bunch of fish that he caught. I also remember eating abalone for the first time at that fish fry, and boy was it delicious. I don't know who dove for and caught the abalone or who cooked it, but it was very yummy, and I've loved it ever since.

I also remember uncle Dee and Aunt Alpha coming to our house in Kagel Canyon for holiday dinners along with their son Darold, who married a French-Canadian girl named Julie Winter who had a cute accent. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was very sweet. They had 3 children, Derek, Jodie and Russell Smith, who now still live not far from the San Fernando Valley.

In 1865 my parents bought vacation/retirement property in a town called Wofford Heights, a small resort community along the Kern River near Lake Isabella, California, about 65 miles north east of Bakersfield near the Sequoia National Forest. They developed their land, built a home and garage, and used the property for weekends and vacations until my dad retired from work about 1969, and they moved there permanently.

Around the same time or shortly after, uncle Dee and aunt Alpha also bought property in Wofford Heights and they later retired there too. Although according to the California State Death Index, it shows that my Uncle Dee's permanent address upon his death in 1972 was in Van Nuys, California, which is in the San Fernando Valley. However, I do believe my uncle and aunt were living near Lake Isabella at the time he died, and that uncle Dee was buried in the same cemetery in Wofford Heights where my father, Halley Dale Smith, was buried.

Uncle Dee I will always remember you as a very sweet man! Aunt Alpha was also very nice, and she was a lot of fun to be around. She had a great laugh and good sense of humor, and I seem to remember that she had a bit of a Texas or southern accent or drawl being she and her family were from Texas. Ironic that Texas is where I live now!