Lee Maurice Smith

Lee M. Smith, a proud member of the Greatest Generation and an Army Air Force World War II veteran, died Friday, July 24, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 101.

His death came just 10 days after he completed the last two items on his bucket list. Age was not a barrier to Lee, but rather a challenge, one he met with enthusiasm and courage.

That bucket list included four tandem parachute jumps, on his 97th, 98th, 99th and 100th birthday and was capped with a ride in a private jet and a visit to the World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Lee was born on March 29, 1925 in Palo Alto, California. On his 8th birthday his parents, Raymond W. Smith and Ethel Tyson Smith, gifted him with a plane ride in a Kinner powered Consolidated “Fleet” aircraft operated by the Stanford School of Aeronautics based at the Palo Alto Airport. The pilot was Paul Mantz, a movie stunt pilot and instructor at the Stanford-based school. The birthday ride sparked a lifelong passion for any manmade object that flew.

On his 18th birthday in 1943, Lee took all the tests necessary to qualify for the Army Air Corps Cadet program and later that year he was accepted and did his basic training in Amarillo, Texas. Lee used to say “Texas is the only place you can be up to your waist in mud and get sand blown in your face.” Or, “The only thing that stops the wind in Texas is the barbed wire fencing.”

An unfortunate bout with Scarlet Fever during his training set back his bombardier training. After his recovery, Army Air Corps sent him to Boca Raton, Florida to train as a radar operator mechanic on the B-17. It was during this training that the war ended, and he was discharged with the rank of sergeant.

He later obtained his general aviation license and flew small single engine aircraft. He realized another lifelong dream when he flew his beloved DC-3 with a flight instructor.

He had a long and successful career with small and large advertising agencies, mostly based in San Francisco. The early BankAmericard ads used his name in national TV and billboard advertising. His first marriage resulted in two sons, James and Michael and his second marriage to Janet Grimm which lasted more than 60 years resulted in his beloved daughter Laura.

During his early work in advertising, he was a frequent visitor to the Southwest part of the country and due to his help with many horseless carriage caravans in the 1950s he was named an honorary citizen of Tucson, Arizona. The Old Pueblo was a place he loved and later visited with his son and daughter-in-law, Joan, in 2022 and 2023. While there he was invited to tour Davis-Monthan Air Force Base where he was received warmly by the pilots and crew on the base. His only regret on that visit was there was no two-seat A-10 Thunderbolt for him to take a ride in. But know that he asked. It was also in Tucson he did his first two-parachute jumps, the second was with his grandson, Tim.

One of his most precious achievements was as a docent at the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air and Space Museum based at Dulles Airport. He spent 16 years as a docent and was inducted into the Wall of Honor. If Lee didn’t know the answer to an airplane question, then there was no answer. He was a popular tour guide and had the honor of giving Alex Trebek, of Jeopardy fame, and other VIP visitors personal tours.

He frequently spoke to groups of school students about World War II. Once to a group of middle school students he ended his talk about his time of service by saying very matter-of-factly: “Hitler did everyone a favor and blew his brains out.” The principal of the school quietly turned to the teacher who organized the event and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll take the calls tomorrow.”

Lee was an occasional, but popular guest on the Tony and Dwight Show on WHAS AM radio program in Louisville. He also was a guest on the WHAS TV noon show with Brooke Hasch. Those appearances were part of his volunteer work as an Ambassador for Honor Flight Bluegrass, a Louisville-based organization that flies veterans of war to Washington, D.C. to see the monuments there. Lee himself flew on an Honor Flight in 2021 accompanied by his son, Jim, a Vietnam veteran.

While living in Louisville, Lee visited the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Dayton Air and Space Museum in Dayton, Ohio, the Lexington Air Museum, the George Patton Museum at Fort Knox and got a golf cart tour of the Indianapolis 500 Raceway. He was also a frequent visitor to any Army-Navy surplus store and many car museums within a half-day’s drive of Louisville. He loved going to concerts and movies with his daughter and son-in-law Philip in the Louisville area.

The day after the 2026 Kentucky Derby, Lee and his son watched private jets leave Bowman Field. It was there that Lee hinted he had only two more things he wanted to do before he died. One was the ride in a private jet and the other a visit to the World War II Museum. Those are the two items he checked off his list July 13-14, 2026.

One day after he returned from the trip, he entered the VA Hospital in Louisville where he received excellent hospice care.

In addition to his son and daughter, and their spouses, he is survived by four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, beloved nieces and their spouses. Not to mention a legion of friends that stretch from coast to coast, from young to old and from every walk of life.

In earlier years, he was an avid bicyclist and was always a voracious reader, almost exclusively books on wars, history, and of course, airplanes. Even at the end of his life in hospice he was reading “The Final Storm” by Jeff Shaara, one of his favorite authors.

Lee was positive about nearly everything, but he really, really hated mushrooms. “I don’t eat fungus!,” he would say.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Janet and his son, Michael.

Memorial donations in Lee’s name are requested to the Honor Flight Bluegrass, PO Box 991364, Louisville, Kentucky 40269-1364. The family wants to thank the hospice staff at the VA Hospital and Magnolia Springs in Lyndon for Lee’s wonderful care during the last few years.

A military internment service is being planned.

“To fly west, my friend, is a flight we all must take for a final check.”

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