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.