The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 6

Skydiver for 47 years 'Smitty the surrounded by past I i By THOMAS D. BILLAM WICHITA, Kan. (UPI) Eighty-year-old "Smitty the Jumper" is literally surrounded by his daredevil, parachuting past the walls of his trailer are jammed with pictures and posters of aviation and skydiving history. And if that's not enough, it's all Smitty Henry Truesdell Smith talks about: wing-walking, stunt parachute drops and the friends he's made at jump meets all across the nation. For example: "When I took my first jump, I'd never seen a jump before.

There were only a handful of jumpers at that time. Chutes were scarce, and everytime I got a chute, I couldn't find a pilot who would take me up when they found out it was my first time. I went from 18 to 30 before I took my first jump." Or: "I never hesitated or had any fears of jumping. I always feel safer with a chute that staying inside the airplane." Homemade chute Or more about his first jump in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1928: "It was a homemade chute, cotton or some sort of bedsheet material, but I made the jump. I whooped and hollered like a monkey at the end of a grapevine.

I missed the field by about two miles. I tumbled, like to killed myself, broke my goggles over my eyes. It was a terrible landing, but it was my first jump." More than 200 jumps later, Smitty settled in Wichita, to 1 organize what he calls his "Wall of Fame" as a place for "skydivers to get together." It's a small bit of ground in north Wichita covered with Smitty-palnted signs, a windsock, a small plane he plans to erect atop a pole, several home-built picnic tables and his four- room trailer, one huge memory of skydiving. A picture of a dark, dapper, mustachioed Smitty at age 30 leaning against a Ford Tri-Motor lends a sharp contrast to a Smitty at age 80 with flowing white hair under an elastic headband, contemporary eyeglasses, and beads over a T-shirt emblazoned with a Smitty-designed iron-on patch. The shirt proclaims his name and the 47 years between his first and last jumps.

A jump jacket with dozens of parachute patches hangs on one wall and magazines about flying and jumping are stacked against another. The complicated cast he wore after his last jump five years ago is enthroned at the other end of the trailer below a sign: "Warning to all jumpers: quit before you are 76." Broken bones Smitty opened his last chute in an August 1974 jump his 211th which ended in the city dump of Lincoln, with broken bones in his left leg, hip and pelvis. He said he had a "gray- out" in which he was conscious but could not see until it was too late to avoid being slammed into a 5-foot embankment. Smitty still complains, although he walks without trouble, that he "lost 2M; inches of height" in that last jump. With a hunk of metal screwed into his left leg, Smitty confines his skydiving to dreams that began 60 years ago.

"For 12 years I'd been dreaming about jumping, darn near every night. Falling through space is just born in me," Smitty said. Between attempts to get his "Wall of Fame" cleaned up, Smitty likes to visit Wichita taverns to "boogie" to remain alive and active. And whenever he can, he likes to attend skydiving meets. He plans to be at the the POPS Parachutists Over Phorty gathering May 26-28 at Tallequah, to swap stories.

Even though he no longer jumps, he still takes the bittersweet joy of flying with jumpers when possible. "I've gone up with jumpers in a big plane, there's maybe 30 jumpers inside, and they go right out the door. And there you are, left up there alone," Smitty said, with a faraway look in his eyes. "It's awful quiet after they leave." Smitty claimed after his accident in 1974 the second consecutive time he'd broken a leg skydiving he was quitting. But it's obvious he misses the excitement that was a consistent part of his life from 1928 through 1937, and again starting in 1960.

"I won't say I won't make any more jumps. When I think my leg is strong enough, I'll jump again," Smitty claims. "But maybe I'll use a square- shooter, they say you can land tiptoe in one of those." Nuclear study group to meet The next meeting for a local study group on nuclear issues will be at 7:30 p.m. in Room 220N of the Administration Building at Marymount College. Jeanne Green of The Land Institute, Salina Rt.

3, is one of the organizers. She is a member of the Kansas Natural Guard. NOW OPEN SUNDAY 12-5 Store Man. 9 pm Wednesday 9 am-9 pm Thursday 9 am-9 pm Fri. A Sat.

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Served Sunday 11 to 2 p.m. Daredevil decorating H.T. "Smitty the Jumper" after his last parachute jump in Smith, Wichita, points to the 1974, when he was 76 years old. pelvis and body cast he wore BRANNS FURNITURE SALE STOREWIDE SALE EVENT Coupon OFF EACH MIX AND MATCH DINETTE TABLE Pick the table you want. Choose the right size and the top you want.

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