Thomas Marbury Smith grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he now lives with his wife, Mayling. They have 2 grown sons, Roger and Lancer. Roger and his wife Michelle bought a house in Tuscaloosa a mile from Marbury and Mayling. Lancer and his wife, Laura and their two daughters live in south Alabama .
I have known Tommy “ Marbury “ Smith since He moved to Birmingham in 1982 with his wife, Mayling and sons Roger and Lancer. Roger and I went to Vestavia Hills High School and Lancer followed along a few years later. We all played in the Vestavia Marching and jazz bands.
Marbury has always been known as the cool dad who had motorcycles, flew jet airplanes and played as a studio musician.
Everyone always ended up at the Smith house on the weekends because the basement was like the tool showroom at Sears. Here we could learn wood working, welding, machining, fiberglass, boats, go carts, model airplanes, RC cars and even stained glass that survived the April storm.
An attendee at the time was Jay Prator who is now famous Wichita, Kansas KAKE, Sr. Meteorologist. Jay Prator caught weather/ pilot / ham radio bug. Some of others that showed up were Andrew Brozowski now an active duty 1st Sergeant in the US ARMY, Jeff Williams who now has 3 custom Corvettes, In school we covered Jeff’s entire car with stickers to cover up the rust. Carl Dean who also rode motorcycles went in to mechanical engineering and civil engineering getting a masters in both from UAB. Fred Gear an ASE master mechanic at the Porsche Dealership working with the high end cars for the Porsche driving experience..
After Roger and Lancer graduated from school. Marbury and ,Mayling returned to Tuscaloosa to live in her parents house on 14th street.
From where we were in high school to where we are now I know that Marbury and Mayling played a great part in keeping us in line with sweet tea and much encouragement on our weekend projects. We even painted a car with house paint for a demolition derby after Marbury welded the doors shut and we added roll cage parts .
One of Marbury’s hobbies was to play in the 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment Band, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
He and Mayling take antique motor cycles to shows in the Southeast . He still has more toys than any of us “kids” and now a book. The Smiths have always been and continue to be very special friends with all of us.
Mickey Gillespie
Photographer, Videographer , KJ4KZT cahabaradioclub.org Jefferson and Shelby County ARES , ALERT , EMA