
Dear classmates,
For many years I have searched for Thomas J. Smith, my best buddy in high school and post grad. Yesterday I finally located him, but too late. He died on July 16, 2006, and is buried in a veterans cemetery in Florida. I am trying to get his death certificate to find cause of death and especially next of kin.
Tom was the best friend ever. We walked to and from Brackett School, Arlington Junior High West, and AHS ....down, then up the steep hills around School Street. We were absolutely inseparable. The first time I flew in an airplane was with Tom in 1964 to the New York Worlds Fair. We would go to the Fresh Pond drive in movie theater often and I think we saw all of Elvis Presley's movies there. Tom was a very quiet, pensive deep thinker who cared greatly about family, friends and country. He served in Vietnam and came home psychologically wounded. I saw him a few times after he returned from Vietnam and then he vanished until I finally found him yesterday. I have missed him very much. Tom always wanted to be a writer or a journalist. In our AHS yearbooks he wrote in mine : Some day, when you're a famous doctor I'm going to write your life story.
Goodbye Tom, my best buddy.
Earl Yunes
SSN
Thomas James Smith[Thomas J Smith]
Gender:Male
Race:White
Birth Date:1 Nov 1946
Birth Place:Allston, Massachusetts
Death Date:16 Jul 2006
Type of Claim: Original SSN.
Notes:Sep 1959: Name listed as THOMAS JAMES SMITH; 26 Jul 2006: Name listed as THOMAS J SMITH
Find a grave:
Name:Thomas James Smith
Birth Date:1 Nov 1946
Death Date:16 Jul 2006
Cemetery:Bay Pines National Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place:Bay Pines, Pinellas County, Florida, USA Has Bio?:N
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51064325
Note: SSG US ARMY; VIETNAM
Burial:Bay Pines National Cemetery
Bay Pines
Pinellas County
Florida, USA
Plot: Section F Site 79
|
Thomas P. (Tommy) Enwright
SO SAD
Patricia A. Ferriani (Falwell)
Earl so sorry you located him too late! But it sounded like you have great memories and hope those memories will bring you some comfort!
Evelyn Smith (Smith DeMille)
Earl---I am saddened to hear about Tom's death but glad your searching is done...truly,
Carmen Bourget (Lysaght)
Earl, thank you for posting. So sorry for your loss. Good that you finally found him.
Walter R. Smith
I am so sorry to hear about Tom's passing. He sat in front of me in homeroom for 4 years at AHS. I remember him well from Mr. Kroll's Biology class, where he embarrassed the **** out of me, but I totally deserved it for being such a Moosh! He was a good guy, very quiet, with a laid back sense of humor, and great hair! I wish I had known he was also a VN vet -- we might have been able to swap some war stories over brewskies.
My heart goes out to Earl Yunes. My BFF (Nick Gianourakos) and I shared each other's lives for 53 years until he chose to pass on his 67th birthday. The pain lingers, and I visit his family (who treated me as another son) as often as I can at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.