Carroll Lloyd Smith

Carroll Lloyd Smith was born on December 6, 1929, in Glendale, California and passed away on November 22, 2021, at the age of 91. Carroll is predeceased by his wife Jaqueline. Carroll is survived by his three sons, Stephen Carroll Smith, Leslie Carlton Smith and Gregory Vincent Smith as well as his eleven grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Carroll’s parents were Lloyd Smith, originally from Missouri and Ramona Elaine Jones, originally from Nebraska. He had a half-brother, Loring, from his mother and a half-sister, Tina, from his father. Carroll was born during the Great Depression and his family struggled. His father was a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. His mother and father split up early in his life and his grandmother Emma Jones took over most of his upbringing. He would tell the story of registering himself for school because no one was available to take him or missing school because he was embarrassed that he had no shoes. He went to work at a young age shining shoes and delivering ice blocks to walk up apartments.

Carroll had an inquisitive mind. From an early age, he had an interest in aviation. He liked to build kites and then later model airplanes. Ultimately, he got his pilot’s license. He developed an early passion for photography and took thousands of pictures over his lifetime. Unfortunately, he was usually behind the camera, so there are not many pictures of him. However, his first love was music. He learned to play the harmonica, the saxophone and clarinet. He played in school bands and spent most of the rest of his life playing in small combos, in swing bands and orchestral bands at the local community colleges. Any spare time he had was spent reading, practicing on his clarinet and saxophone and listening to music.

While in high school Carroll enrolled in the ROTC program at Long Beach Polytechnic High School. Upon graduation he joined the Army Reserve and was inducted into active duty in January 1951. He was later deployed to Korea. He was wounded in combat and spent the rest of his tour recovering in Japan. He was transferred back to the Army Reserves in 1952 and eventually separated in 1956. He was awarded the Korean Service Medal, the Combat Infantry Badge, and the Purple Heart.

Carroll met his wife Jackie while roller skating in Long Beach. They were married in July 1951. As a husband and father Carroll provided a stable foundation for his family, something he never had growing up. He encouraged his sons to pursue whatever interested them, whether it was building model airplanes, playing sports, riding motorcycles or playing musical instruments. The family lived in Garden Grove and later moved to Westminster. It was always a busy household with friends, family and three active boys.

When Carroll returned from Korea he went to work for Douglas Aircraft. He liked the work, but there were frequent layoffs. After his first son was born he went to work for General Telephone which he thought would be more stable. During his career at General Telephone Carroll went from climbing telephone poles and working in the switch room to writing operational manuals for their sales force and hosting multimedia presentations to major corporations from their headquarters in Santa Monica. He retired in 1985 after coordinating the communications network for the 1984 Olympics. After retiring he took a job selling airplanes at Martin Aviation in Orange County. He later took a customer service position at Sunset Ford. He worked as a photographer for the Queen Mary as well for weddings and corporate events. During the later part of his life, he made deliveries for Carroll’s Paints, the business he founded with his wife Jackie in 1960.

Carroll was always interested in people and places around the world. In his lifetime, he traveled to 57 different countries. During the time of the Cold War, he traveled several times to eastern European countries and the Soviet Union. Many of the cities and places he visited were well off the beaten track such as Tashkent in present-day Uzbekistan. He attended the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. He visited tribal villages in Eastern Africa. He set foot on every continent except for Antarctica. He never seemed to have any problems with the people he met on his travels probably since he showed them respect and was genuinely interested in learning about their countries and their customs.

During the last years of his life Carroll stayed close to home. Jackie’s prolonged illness required that he attend to her needs and coordinate with her caregivers. Although a very intelligent man with an extensive vocabulary, he found it increasingly difficult to express himself. The associated frustration and confusion were the first manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease. Eventually it was no longer possible for him to live independently, and he spent the last eight years of his life in assisted living. He and his family were very fortunate to find Golden Way Care in Anaheim where he comfortably spent the last four years of his life.

A memorial gathering will be held in April with his immediate family. Donations in his name can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.