Russell Zeeman Smith 1905-1952

SMITH, ZEEMAN

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 1/1/2011 at 01:38:26

Details of Fatal Car Crash Told
Details of an accident which cost the life of Russell Smith, former Estherville resident and son of Mrs. Andrew Smith have been received.

The following is from a California paper of Feb. 21:

Russell Z. [Zeeman] Smith, general manager of San Bernardino’s National Orange Show, and Mrs. John L. Lounsbury, wife of the president of San Bernardino college were killed in an auto accident early today. Mrs. Lounsbury was a former Long Beach resident.

Smith’s car and one driven by Ramon Contrereas, 26, of Los Angeles, collided head-on on a sweeping curve of State Hwy 111, 10 miles west of here [Riverside County]. Contrereas was injured.

Smith, 46, who had managed the Orange Show since 1947, and Mrs. Lounsbury, 50, a member of the show’s decorating committee, had been attending the County Fair and Date Festival here with W. C. Shay, chairman of the Orange Show’s carnival committee. Shay was not with Smith and Mrs. Lounsbury at the time of the crash.

Dr. Lounsbury was believed enroute home by auto from San Francisco, where he had been interviewing candidates for a position at San Bernardino College. State highway patrolmen were attempting to get word to him of his wife’s death.

Prior to World War II Smith was state forester for San Bernardino County. At one time during the war he was in charge of the aircraft warning service for the Pacific coast.

Smith leaves a widow and two children. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, March 1, 1952)

Note: per CA death index, dod 21 Feb 1952; dob 16 Jun 1905, South Dakota. Mother’s maiden name: Zeeman