Alice Aline Smith

Aline was born in Oneida, South Dakota in a hospital. She was the only one of her siblings to be born in a hospital. Named after her close Aunt Alice, she has always gone by Aline to avoid confusion.

Oneida was a small town that was close to an Indian Reservation. The ladies on the reservation were impressed by her great amount of baby fat and poke her saying “good baby.” She still has some of the handmade gifts they made for her.

At 1 year, her mother and father moved to Eureka, SD where he was a manager of an Experimental Government Farm. There her 3 younger siblings were born. She was often left responsible for them while both parents worked. Her youngest brother said he has memories of her “scrubbing his face off.” The four siblings were very close and remained so to the end, referring to themselves as the Fab Four.

At the age of 12 years old, the government was closing their small experimental farms. The family packed up and moved to Oregon in a two car caravan. Aline brought her 2 pet chickens along with her. The family moved to Newburg with their maternal grandmother for 1 school year, then to the Portland area.

Aline graduated from Gresham High School in 1942. She applied for a Civil Service Job. All the men were being sent overseas at the time. (WWII) She got a job with the Civil Aeronautics Administration, but had to be 18 years old before they could take her. In the meantime, she took a Stenography course her Mom gave her for her birthday. She worked at a flower shop and at Eastman Kodak Snapshot Co. in photography.

At 18, she went to Seattle to train as an Aircraft Communicator in Morse Code for 6 months. She and a few others got sent to Montana at 4 months as they “knew their stuff”. She worked alone in a weather lookout tower. She then worked on navigation, code, and weather reporting for aircraft. Aline says “Keeping the Radio Signal Machine working was scarey!!” Her plan was to work towards transferring to a position in Eugene, OR so she could attend college, but instead her transfer was to Medford, OR where she worked for a year.

While at Medford, OR, Aline and a girlfriend took a road trip to Mexico City. Her friend was a dance teacher and got Aline into dancing in Mexico. Aline returned to work at Medford. She discovered that she could no longer get the Eugene, OR station so she went home to retire.

Her Mother talked her into continuing with the CAA, so she moved to Seattle to work in the secondary control tower that pilots called into for weather and flight information. Being wartime (WWII), women were hired to replace men’s positions until they returned home from duty. The pilots loved to call and tease the girls. This is how she met her future husband, Bill, an air force pilot. When the man whose position she was filling returned from the war, she had to give it up. She turned down an offer to work in the main control tower. She left the CAA to teach dancing at Arthur Murray’s. Aline and Bill were married in 1947. She retired from dance.

In 1950, Richard was born, with Kelsa following in 1954. During that time, they had a few temporary moves to Texas and New Jersey due to the military. They moved to Lacey, WA and built a home. With children, she was busy with Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and Church School. Bill designed & built a family boat and they bought land at the bay, so the family enjoyed boating and picnics during the summer.

She worked with the Election Board and as a row boss for several summers at the strawberry fields where Kelsa picked berries. She involved herself in her children’s activities. She took care of her elderly folks, driving to and from Oregon frequently. After the kids left home, Aline began teaching remedial at the middle school for twenty years. She tended to her husband when he became ill. He passed before her in the year 2000.

She lived alone in her house. She kept busy in the church and with family, enjoying gardening, reading and her granddaughter. Her 3 siblings passed previously within a year of her. The Fab Four is now back together.