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Bud Smith and Lloyd White
Milwaukie HS Senior Baseball
1959
Bud is third from right,
Lloyd is second from
right
I had the pleasure to meet Lloyd White who was a friend of Bud
Smith's since they were 6 years old. During WWII Lloyd's parents bought
property in Milwaukie Oregon. They eventually moved to Timber and Bud's
parents, Bud (Eldon) and Ivy Smith, bought the White's house. The Smith's owned
the Candyland store in Milwaukie. Bud and Lloyd played together as kids-
fishing, hunting, basketball, football and later double dated. Bud had quite a
season his senior year in high school baseball and basketball. His batting
average was 300 and in basketball Bud was the second leading scorer and best
free throw shooter.
When they graduated from Milwaukie High School in
1959 they went their separate ways- Lloyd to the University of Oregon and Bud
to Lewis & Clark College where he played baseball and basketball and got
his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business Administration. He
belonged to Phi Coms which was for active participants in social and athletic
activities and also a member of Alpha Kappa Psi, a national business
fraternity. Here at L&C he met his future wife Judy. Lloyd remembers the
two families called each other and got together over the years- their parents
remained friends also. Bud went into the Air Force and got married and Lloyd
went into the Army with the 1st Infantry Division in the U.S. and Vietnam. The
last time Lloyd talked to Bud was on the phone when Bud was home before he went
to Mountain Home Idaho.
Bud has 8 cousins- Virginia, Al, Dick and Jim
are children of Winifred, Linda is daughter of Dorothy, Shelly (Will) and
Katherine are children of Marion- sisters of Bud's mother. Sharon's mother was
the twin of Bud's father. Virginia and Buddy were only 3 months apart in age so
attended the same grade school.
I was also contacted by a classmate of
theirs from Milwaukie High School class of 1959, Nancy Stuart. Sharon said she
hadn't seen Bud since they were teenagers, but he was always in her heart and
often on her mind. Nancy tried to get Bud's bracelet back during the Vietnam
war, but wasn't able to. She said Buddy was one of the nice guys at Milwaukie
High. He was friendly to everyone and was a good athlete playing first string
on the Milwaukie Mustang's basketball team. Lloyd White let me use his
Milwaukie High School year book to get photos of Bud and supplied baseball and
basketball stats.
When news of Bud's POW/MIA status in Vietnam was
known Lloyd's parents stopped in at the Candyland shop often to see how Bud's
parents were doing. Bud's parents, Bud and Ivy, said very few people came to
see them. It must have been a very sad and lonely time for them. He was their
only child.
In 2001 Bud's cousin Virginia gave a DNA sample after the
site of Bud's plane crash was excavated, but none of the remains were Buddy's,
she says. There were no parachutes found and no first aid kits at the scene.
Did they bail out?
Thank you to Lloyd White for this personal look at
Bud Smith's family and growing up years. Thank you to Bud's cousin Virginia who
gave Lloyd some personal items regarding Bud's service and POW/MIA status so he
could donate them to the Oregon Military Museum where it is on display to this
day. I hope to get a photograph of the display soon to post. Virginia is
putting together some photos and stories also to be added to Bud's
pages. |
