Happy Birthday Brent Smith, born March 5, 1945

For the month of March we have several birthdays to spotlight, Brent, my brother, Curtis Starr (Lanny's brother), Tyson Jensen (Angela’s husband) and Huxley Jensen (Tyson and Angela’s younger son). Angela is Craig's oldest daughter.  The ancestor chosen to highlight is William Russell Archibald, who was born in Scotland March 16, 1858 (Lanny's greatmother Loretta's grandfather).
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Brent Smith my younger brother, no middle name, but several nicknames, Salty being one of them, was born in American Fork, Utah. He is a year younger than I am, the 8^th child born to Russell Smith and Ruth Irene Johnson Smith. A sister Claudette was born just over a year later.
 

House we grew up in which had been in the family
for years.


Things that I remember about Brent: in our childhood we argued and teased like any other family of siblings. There were the three of us being about a year apart in age, then a brother Dennis half way  between us and the older siblings Calvin, Carol and Joan.  Two younger brothers passed away earlier in their lives.

Arlene and Brent

Joan, Calvin,Carol, Dennis
Arlene, Brent, Claudette

As kids when we weren’t doing farm chores or helping with the harvest or working in the fruit stand, we played outside a lot. Some of our favorite games were Cowboys and Indians and Hide ‘n Seek, baseball, kickball and basketball. During the cold weather when we played indoors we played checkers, monopoly and other board games. This was before the Nintendo Game Cube, X-Box, Play Station 3, Wii, DS, i-Pod, and such devices the kids play with now. Maybe we had more fun than they do today, we definitely got more exercise. As a teenager I remember a basketball game one evening with Brent. We played until Mom called us in to eat. I remember thinking this was especially fun.
Brent liked to fish and would walk to Utah Lake which was a couple of miles away. He usually brought home fish which mom would fix for dinners and sometimes for breakfasts.
As siblings we had our share of arguements and teasing.  Brent and Claudette especially like to test wits, and I’ve come across an interesting observation: in many of the family pictures you will find the two of them standing next to each other! 

Arlene, Dennis, Calvin, Brent, Claudette, Carol, Joan
picture taken at Mom's funeral

Tom and Joan celebrating their 50th Anniversary
Bill, Diane, Brent, Claudette, Kay, Arlene, Lanny, Dennis
front=Carol, Tom, Joan, Maxine

Brent was a neat dresser, fussy about his clothes and insisted on nice shirts.
One of his hobbies he was interested in was coin collecting, which was also a hobby Mom enjoyed.
On his graduation night from high school Mom, Claudette and I were in

Brent and his dad, Russell Smith

attendance. Not too far into the program Brent fell forward and onto the stage. Mom came out of her chair worried and anxious, as I’ve ever seen her. She pushed us forward wanting us to go quickly and see if he was okay. As it turned out, he was okay; it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed with a good night’rest and probably some food.

Dad and Brent had a bumpy relationship at times, they were both strong willed. When Dad passed away Brent took it very, very hard.

As he got older he began working for Tom, our brother-law-law building houses and other buildings. He worked for him for a number of years. I remember him being particular about how things were done. He and his first wife Carolyn have six lovely children, four girls and two boys. The boys names are Brent and Russell and the girls are Samatha, Hope Carolyn, Spring Irene, and Rebecca.

Later he married Diane Beatrice Ezell who I believe has two boys, Kirk and Corey. Brent and Diane have been together for years and they make a cute couple. I’m glad they found each other and wish them well.



Kurk, Corey,Russell,
Becky, Brent, Spring
Samatha, Hope

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR BROTHER OF MINE.  Your birthday card is
arriving late, but this blog is on time.  Your sister up north