A few months ago, Kay Smith got a phone call out of the blue. At first she didn’t pick up.
“I get crackpot calls all the time on my phone,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘who the hell is this?’ So I didn't answer him. Then I got the text. I was like, ‘Whoa, wait, this is about Smitty.’”
Smitty was her father-in-law who passed away around 20 years ago.
Parents can be a bit of a mystery to their children. They had lives before becoming parents and keep some of those details to themselves. For Birmingham residents Kay and Hugh Smith, the gap in Smitty’s story involved his time serving in World War II.
‘He didn’t really come out and share’
Hugh Smith said growing up, his father was a hard man.
“You had to be careful around your dad and watch what you say and don't make him mad,” Smith said.
Smith said he always understood that was due in part to his father’s military service, but added he never learned much about what his father went through since “he didn’t really come out and share.”
That began to change with the unexpected phone call Kay Smith received. The person on the other line was Jim H. Keeffe, a history buff turned author. He called about a ring. It was her father-in-law’s class ring from Howard College, which is now Samford University.
The Smiths also knew nothing about the ring, but it became the key to unlocking the story of Hugh Smith's father’s wartime past. Through more phone calls and other research, Smith started to put the pieces together
A ring left behind
Smitty was shot down over the Netherlands in 1944. He was injured and residents of a Dutch village cared for him. German troops came through and took him to Stalag Luft IV, a POW camp in modern-day Poland. Before being captured, Smitty left his ring behind. A Dutch family found it and held onto the ring.
Decades later, Keeffe wrote about his own father’s World War II experience. His father happened to be the pilot of the bomber that he and Smitty went down in. Through his research, Keeffe met the Slob family, who still had Smitty’s ring all these years later and had been trying to return it.
The family’s search for Hugh Smith had prompted other members of the community to get involved over the years. They collected historical records about the war, the ring and its owner.
Now Keeffe was involved in the search.
“I started Googling Smith, Hugh Smith, Birmingham, whatever, nothing coming up,” Keeffe said, “I even went through Whitepages.”
Eventually, with an assist from a Belgian friend who scoured the internet, Keeffe had Kay Smith’s phone number which led to Keeffe visiting the Smith’s home in Hoover last month.
When Hugh Smith and Keeffe finally met, they greeted each other like old friends. The pair looked through photos, medals and records. They talked about Smith’s father, the ring and the journey the two had been on.
After more talk, Keeffe held up a small, unassuming package and handed it to Smith. Inside was the red gemstone-encrusted ring along with a hand-written letter from the Slob family.
Smith said the ring offered some closure regarding his father.
“I could have understood him better, because, like I say, we didn't understand each other real well growing up,” Smith said. “I wish that all my family could have known.”
A little later, he chuckled at nothing in particular saying, “better to laugh than to cry, right?”
Hugh Smith placed his father’s college ring on a pillow next to a matching ring that belonged to his mother. After more than 80 years, the ring is back home.
