Remembering Sam Smith

Welcome to Our Own Voices Live with your hosts: Angela Thomas & Rodney Smith.

Our Topic(s) today: “Remembering Sam Smith”

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Sam shared and poured a lot of him into us. Physically he is no longer with us but he will still be seen through us.” Mr. Sam Smith, who many called just Sam, is the man who started the Gathering. He was the only Black book store owner in the state for a while. He got more Black people on fire department than any other locally. He is the man I admired more than any other I met. This in no way is all that Mr. Smith accomplished during his time with us but merely a snapshot.  We affectionately referred to him as, The Mayor of the Bistro and the Oracle of Las Vegas.

When I think of things I have done inspired by him and what wouldn’t have happened in my life had he not been in it, I see such a void. My life is fuller because of him and the community has been enriched by him through me. He said, “we should always be excellent.”

When I am in the community my goal was to be excellent so they could see his excellence in me. It was a way to show a living respect to him and also for his approval. I admired him and wanted his approval probably more than any other man I have known. A very close military buddy asked, “Who is Sam Smith?”  I simply said, “He was the man I would have wanted to call me son.”

Our Own Voices Live is a radio show featuring people and stories from our community in Las Vegas, the surrounding area and some place near you. America is the greatest country on earth due to its cultural diversity and not in spite of it. Our mission is to help bridge the cultural and ethnic divide in America by working together to build the greatest bridge in history to unite us