Biography;

Military officer; aviator; newspaper executive.  Born–Hinds, Mississippi, November 2, 1908.  Parents– Elbert P. and Mattie Smith.  Married–Lucy Amelia Hudson, 1938.  Children–five. 1940-42, worked for Emery-Riddle School of Aviation, Miami; 1942-46, active duty with U.S.Army Air Corps (later U.S.Air Force); 1945-65, U.S.Air Force Reserve, retired 1965 with rank of colonel.  Worked as a newspaper executive in Montgomery. Inducted into the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame, 1993.  Died February 28, 2002.

Publications;

My Quest to Fly:  Memories and Photographs of China, with the American and Chinese Air Forces, 1936-1940.  NewSouth Books, 2013.