Norman Smith in full paratrooper gear in May 1957.
Janis Smith of De Soto had just graduated from high school in the Bootheel in 1955. “My sister, Cherry Jo Davis, lived in De Soto,” she said. “She came down home to visit and wanted me to go back with her to see if I could find a job. I lived on a 40-acre farm and picked cotton, so I moved to De Soto with my sis and her husband, Billy Davis, who worked at Sears in De Soto.”
Janis got hired at Fo-Jo Studios, and was on a break one day with some of the other employees when a 1953 Plymouth drove by and stopped.
“One of the girls went over to the car and talked to the guy,” she said. “It was her older brother, Norman E. “Frog” Smith. He kept watching me. I went inside when break was over, and his sister came over and said he wanted to know my name.”
Young Norman worked in construction, and rainy weather found him stopping by Fo-Jo to ask Janis out on a date.
“At first I said no; I was just 17,” she said. “But he kept showing up, so I said yes.”
The couple went to the movies and ate at Red’s Hamburger Joint in De Soto. After a few weeks, Norman proposed, and the couple married in October 1956, shortly before he got a draft notice.
Norman did his Army basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, then was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
“We stayed there two years, and he made a jump a month to get paid,” Janis said. “It was pretty rough. He had to run 10 miles a day with a backpack, and he told me guys were just dropping off the track, couldn’t make it. Norman was a strong guy. He had played baseball most of his life.”
Norman Smith served two years, then was honorably discharged. He and Janis settled in De Soto and were happily married more than 63 years, until his death in 2019. They have two children and three grandchildren.
