When Roy Smith
was a boy, his family took in boarders like Harold Stratton, who helped
earn his keep by giving young Roy clarinet lessons.
"Roy,"
said Stratton, "I've been a professional musician all my life, played in
pit bands; my boys are both professional musicians. Music ia a good avocation,
but not a vocation. How many guys fifty, sixty, seventy, do yousee at the top,
making money? You have fun with it, but do something else."
So Roy went to
Pitt and became a dentist, and when he was ready to set up shop in 1927, came
to Franklin, where he was almost immediately brought into the band.
By 1935 (above
left) Roy had become the band's drum major. At several different times during
the band's history, they turned to Roy to serve as director. His programs were
not always the most rigorous, but those who played under his baton knew him as
a self-effacing director with a solid musical sense.
By the 1980's,
Roy was retired from dentistry, but still active in the band. He was perfectly
happy to sit in the third clarinet section and help coach young players even as
he played many numbers from memory. And even when simply directing the Star
Spangled Banner at the end of a concert, Roy coaxed music and feeling out of a
simple piece.
Roy and his
wife Dolly began spending most of their time at their retirement home in
Florida, but Roy would still make the difficult trip north just to play with
the band. When he finally retired from active band participation, it was with
just under 75 years of active band membership, a record of service unmatched in
the history of this, or almost any other, band.
