Early Life
Walter Bedell Smith was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 5 October 1895, the eldest of two sons of William Long Smith, a silk buyer for the Pettis Dry Goods Company, and his wife Ida Francis née Bedell, who worked for the same company. Smith was known as Bedell from childhood. From an early age he was nicknamed "Beetle", or occasionally "Beedle" or "Boodle". He was educated at St. Peter and Paul School, public schools #10 and #29, Oliver Perry Morton School, and Emmerich Manual High School, where he trained as a machinist. While still there, he took a job at the National Motor Vehicle Company, and eventually left high school without graduating. Smith enrolled at Butler University but his father developed serious health problems, and Smith left university to return to his job and support his family.
In 1911, at the age of 16, Smith enlisted as a private in Company D of the 2nd Indiana Infantry of the Indiana National Guard. The Indiana National Guard was called out twice in 1913, for the 1913 Ohio flood and a streetcar strike. Smith was promoted to corporal and then sergeant. During the Pancho Villa Expedition he served on the staff of the Indiana National Guard. In 1913 he met Mary Eleanor (Nory) Cline, and they were married in a traditional Roman Catholic wedding ceremony on 1 July 1917. Their marriage was of long duration but produced no children.
Read more about this topic: Walter Bedell Smith
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“[In early adolescence] she becomes acutely aware of herself as a being perceived by others, judged by others, though she herself is the harshest judge, quick to list her physical flaws, quick to undervalue and under-rate herself not only in terms of physical appearance but across a wide range of talents, capacities and even social status, whereas boys of the same age will cite their abilities, their talents and their social status pretty accurately.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“I had this advantage, at least, in my mode of life, over those who were obliged to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theatre, that my life itself was become my amusement and never ceased to be novel. It was a drama of many scenes and without an end.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)