Walter Bedell Smith - Early Life

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.