Herald’s E. Bethel Correspondent
Retires After 33 Years on the Job
By Martha Slater

In the living room at her new home at Windover House, long-time Herald correspondent Mary Smith reminisced recently abcout her 33 years on the job as a correspondent for The Herald. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Long-time Herald correspondent Mary (Mrs. Alson) Smith recently put down her pencil and handed in her envelopes after over three decades of reporting the East Bethel news. A fall, resulting in a broken arm and a move out of her home, precipitated her retirement.

Now comfortably ensconced at Windover House in Randolph, Mary reminisced last Friday morning about her eventful life.

Born in Plymouth ("on the road to Calvin Coolidge’s birthplace," she notes) on Valentine’s Day in 1931, Mary moved to East Bethel at the age of five.

"I went to school at the Octagon, back when they taught all eight grades there," she recalled. Mary attended South Royalton High School (where she went to school with the Herald’s present East Barnard correspondent Marjorie Van Alstyne) and graduated in 1949.

In 1952, she married Alson Smith.

"I first met him when I was five, but he was 14 and a half years older than me, so he always said he waited for me to grow up," Mary says. "He was a good man."

Although they never had children, the couple did have a lot of animals to care for.

"We had 19 and a half acres and we used to raise veal," Mary explained. "We had cattle, horses, ponies, rabbits, ducks, guinea pigs, cats and dogs, too. For six years, I had a pet crow named JoJo who talked. She would mimic what people said. She was quite a bird!"

Mary started her career as the East Bethel correspondent for The Herald back in the mid-1970s, when her predecessor, Zelda Savage, got sick. Thus began 33 years of faithfully mailing her neatly written sheet of news each week to The Herald office.

"I liked doing it," she said with a smile. "I’ve known the people there all my life and I tried to never put in anything that would offend anyone. Sometimes I did get phone calls from people who were annoyed because of something I didn’t put in!"

After Alson died on July 30, 1998, Mary sold the cattle, and her 27-year-old horse died, but she kept the rabbits, ducks, and guinea pigs. JoJo, unfortunately, fell victim to a weasel.

Mary stayed on in their big yellow house, but this winter, soon after her 76^th birthday, she had a fall and broke her arm.

"I was hanging up clothes in my cousin Rachel Tenney’s basement, and my blood pressure was up," she said. "I got dizzy and fell and the cement floor caught me!"

After a short stay at Gifford Medical Center, Mary made the decision to move to Windover House March 1. Lest any Herald readers worry about the fate of her animals, she hastened to add that she has found good homes for all of them, including her beloved beagle, Snoopy.

"I do miss not being able to do the news, but I really enjoy it here," Mary noted. "I’m right across the hall from my friend Mary Perrin. She’s 104 years old and I used to come up here to visit her, so now I’ve got a much shorter trip!"

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