VALLONIA
Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, Joseph Smart Jr. lived through the Great Depression and later the Ohio River flood of 1937.
He served overseas during World War II, including the Battle of Iwo Jima.
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He also has had two strokes that have affected his peripheral vision.
Through all of the battles he has faced, Smart feels fortunate to make it to 100.
He reached that milestone Aug. 21, and it was celebrated by family members, friends and neighbors driving by his home in Vallonia to wish him a happy birthday.
His daughter, Jeannie Redicker, knew he didn’t want a party, for one reason because his latest stroke in June resulted in him having trouble speaking clearly.
Redicker and her father had read about World War II veteran Cliff Sierp of Seymour turning 100 earlier this year and his family conducting a drive-by parade for him, and Smart was intrigued.
Redicker shared the idea on her Facebook page and asked people to gather in the Trinity Lutheran Church parking lot and line up to drive by their home on a nearby county road.
Smart sat in a chair at the end of his driveway to wave at people and say hello, while his daughter and great-grandchildren helped collect cards and balloons from parade participants.
“I knew he wouldn’t be able to talk to a lot of people, so drive-by was great. It would be easier for Dad to do it that way but also knowing that he wouldn’t be comfortable with a great big party,” Redicker said.
“I also knew that turning 100 was special and there are a lot of people here that love him and have really taken him in since he has moved up here with us,” she said, referring to her dad living with her and her husband, Ray. “I knew a lot of people wanted to show him how happy they were for his birthday, so we wanted to do something because 100 is pretty special.”
The parade was led by a Driftwood Township firetruck and also included cars, trucks, a side-by-side, a motorcycle, a couple of semis and a military truck.
In one of the vehicles was Smart’s 91-year-old sister, Mary Jane Gaynor, who rode up from Louisville.
While all of the participants were happy to be a part of the special occasion, Smart said turning 100 was just another day.
“Oh, nothing to it,” he said when asked what he thought about turning 100.
He credits “clean living” to his longevity, and he likes to spend time with his family, tell jokes and sit in his “office,” which is on the front porch swing.
Redicker said her father does a lot of things for himself, and the only tasks she assists with are fixing meals for him and taking care of his bills.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met anybody that’s 100 years old before, but I began to realize when he had his stroke this June that I took his health and his condition for granted,” she said. “My mom died at 75 and she wanted to live to be 100, so we always teased Dad, ‘Well, you’re going to live to be 100,’ and he’d say, ‘Shut your dirty mouth.’ He didn’t want to live to be 100.”
Last year when he turned 99, though, Redicker said he changed his tune.
“He was like, ‘It is close. We might try to make it another year,’” she said.
Now that he has reached 100, he’s shooting for 101.
“I told him the oldest living Marine was 105, maybe he ought to try to catch up with him, and he said, ‘Well, if he dies, maybe I will,’” Redicker said, smiling.
These days, there are fewer World War II veterans still living.
When he was drafted in 1943, Smart was living in Washington, D.C.
A few years before, he was driving for a trucking company that was assisting with the construction of the Pentagon.
“That’s a big complex, so he would drive dump trucks with loads of bricks or lumber or something and deliver it different places,” Redicker said.
After that job was done, he began driving for the Trailways bus line. He was doing that when he was drafted.
“You were awarded numbers, and if my number would come up, the company would get me deferred because I was doing defense jobs work,” Smart said.
“Finally, in ‘43, they hit the bottom of the barrel and they had to have somebody. I was one of them,” he said, smiling.
Two of his brothers already were serving in the U.S. Navy, and his father and grandfather also had served with that branch of the military.
“This big old buck sergeant in the Marine Corps pulled up in a station wagon and said, ‘I need six volunteers for the Marine Corps. You, you and you.’ I was one of the yous, so I got in the Marine Corps,” Smart said.
He trained at Parris Island, South Carolina, before going overseas, spending time in Guam and Iwo Jima until the war ended in 1945.
“They were getting ready to deploy to the mainland when the bombs dropped and the war ended,” Redicker said.
Smart returned to Washington, D.C., and went back to truck driving. He stayed there until 1955 when he moved back home to Louisville.
“I was wanting to get off the truck and quit driving,” he said.
He landed a job at the DuPont neoprene plant in Louisville, where his father worked, for a couple of years until going back to driving.
“When he married Mom, Mom wanted him off the road,” Redicker said. “Everything he had done before that was over-the-road driving, and so then when he married mom in ‘59, then he started doing city driving.”
Smart retired in 1982 at age 62.
In November 2008, Smart developed macular degeneration and lost a lot of his center vision. He and his wife, Darlaine, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January 2009, and then Darlaine died in July of that year.
“They were snowbirds, so they had a place in Texas, so he tried to go back down there a couple times in the wintertime and finally sold his place,” Redicker said.
Smart has lived with his daughter and son-in-law in Vallonia for about seven years.
When he suffered his first stroke, he lost the peripheral in his left eye.
His second stroke occurred in June of this year when he was sitting on the front porch swing.
“That was a big ordeal for us, but he was a fighter. Whether he wants to be here or not, he keeps fighting his way back into staying here,” Redicker said, smiling. “I think sometimes, I take him for granted because he has always been so healthy except his eyesight. These last two months have been a wakeup call for me, and I realize that my daddy isn’t immortal and our time together is fleeting.”
Redicker said her father is a great example for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they often help her take care of him.
She said her oldest granddaughter is kind and compassionate to Smart.
“It’s what God wants you to do, how he wants you to treat other people,” Redicker said. “In the back of mind, I just keep thinking, ‘The reason that God has left him here this long is that he wants Dad to help instill these values in these children, helping me, helping their parents to do that.’”