Lightning strike couldn’t keep history buff down for long

THREE RIVERS AREA — Foster Smith, who lives in the Four-Mile Hill community in White County, was struck by a bolt of lightning in the fall of 2002. It happened while he was trying to take a picture of a tornado.

He and his wife, Joyce, had been listening to reports that a twister was heading their way.

“When I thought that it was about a mile away, I got my wife’s camera and went into the backyard,” he said.

He didn’t get the picture. About the time that he thought the tornado was just across the road (Arkansas 16), lightning struck a pine tree in the yard and then struck him just above his brow on the left side of his head and made four holes in his right foot. One side of the family garage was knocked off.

As bad as it was, Smith figures he got off much lighterthan most victims of lightning strikes. An online source reveals that 20 percent of them do not survive - and that most of the survivors sustain far worse injuries.

Smith said that the lightning bolt felt like a 480-voltcharge that he had experienced while working with industrial electricit y. He said that the lightninginjury didn’t bother him too much at first.

However, a neurosurgeon he consulted told him that blood vessels in his head had been weakened and that he could expect some loss of memory. And that is what happened.

Earlier, he had been selfemployed, producing swings and outdoor furniture in a plant that he and his employeeshad built near the Smith home. At the time of the lightning injury, he and Joyce were working for a company in Newport that made ambulances, and the Smiths drove them to different cities across the country.

“I would make a trip and would remember that I had been to New York or Los Angeles, but that was about all that I could remember (after the lightning struck him),” he said.

Something that happened to the Smiths on the Texas-Mexico border was too much to forget. Texas Rangers stopped them and searched both ambulances thoroughly to see if they had any illegal immigrants hidden in them.

“The Rangers asked where we were from,” Smith said. “We told them Arkansas, and they said, ‘We’re going to have to watch you all.’”

After three years on the road, the Smiths retired. Smith’s memory problems haveeased, and he has gone back to a favorite pastime of studying county and regional history. He told a White County Historical Society member that he was having to learn county history again.

One of his interests is the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad (M&NA), which ran from Helena on the Mississippi River to Neosho in southwestern Missouri.

He rode the train from Pangburn to Searcy as a child. He remembers that the trip cost a quarter and that on the return trip the train let him off near his home, which was on a farm near Pangburn.

He said that M&NA went out of business in 1946 and was known as the M&A by that time. He looks for and photographs the company’s train stations that are still standing. Some of the small towns that had stations are still small, while others, like Searcy, have grown.

Another interest is Arkansas 16, which is a lot straighter than it used to be, he said. He’s trying to learn how it was routed years ago. One of many route alterations was made near gospel songwriter Luther G. Presley’s home.

“The road used to be very close to the house, and now it’s farther away,” Smith said.

A third longtime interest is the Southwest Trail. He said that it follows U.S. 67 andthat there is a handwritten sign that says “Southwest Trail” at Mount Pisgah in White County.

Smith graduated from Pangburn High School in 1958 and received an associate degree from the Cleveland (Ohio) Institute of Technology in 1975. In retirement, he’s thrilled that his memory is recovering from the lightning bolt and that he has fascinating local history to dig into.

Three Rivers, Pages 129 on 11/01/2009

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