PVT Stacey Woodrow Smith

courtesy of Des Philippet

PVT Stacey Woodrow Smith was born 21 Feb 1915 in Shawmut, Horton township, Elk County, Pennsylvania. He was the 5th of the 9 children born to William Edwin and Catherine Nora Jane "Jennie" (Starr) Smith. His father worked as a foreman in tile manufacture, as a coal miner, and in a clay plant. By 1940, Stacey was working in a steel mill for the Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation which then and now produces specialty steels. In May of that same year he married Isabelle Marion Stobert. The couple lived at 622 3rd Avenue in Tarentum, Pennsylvania a small duplex which still serves as a home today. The couple's first daughter would be born in January 1942 and the second in July 1943.

Stacey was drafted in January 1944. Sent to the European theater after completing his basic military training he was then transferred from the replacement depot to E Company 116th Infantry on 9 Aug 1944. Just a few days later, on 14 Oct 1944, PVT Smith was wounded in the vicinity of Aachen, Germany and evacuated to a hospital. He died of his wound(s) on 15 Oct 1944.

PVT Smith is buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery.

Stacey's younger brother, Dale R. Smith, was an aviation cadet when he received word of his Stacey's death. Older brother, Kenneth Edwin Smith, served in the Army during both WW2 and Korea attaining the rank of MAJ. Father, William Edwin Smith, served as a PVT in B Company 10th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Spanish-American War.