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