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40+ Years: Journal carrier decides to retire
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
Billy Joe Smith says he enjoyed delivering papers "better than any job I ever had."
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Published: August 10, 2009
EAST BEND -- Over the course of more than 40 years, Billy Joe Smith drove 1.4 million miles -- give or take a mile or two -- delivering the Winston-Salem Journal in Yadkin County.
One early morning last month, he tossed his final paper. As he drove, he kept thinking, "This is it. This is the last time."
He didn't see any of his customers. He wishes he had.
"If I could have seen them, I would have thanked them for all the years I got to serve them," he said.
Smith, 70, retired from his day job a few years back but had continued to deliver newspapers because he enjoyed it.
"I enjoyed it better than any job I ever had," he said. "Nobody out there but you."
And raccoons, rabbits and deer.
At one point, he delivered to about 800 subscribers.
"That was a job, especially on Sunday," he said.
Up at 2 a.m. to deliver newspapers
To deliver those papers, he got up about 2 a.m. His wife, Katie, and other members of his family had been lobbying for him to give up his paper route so he could get a little more rest.
On July 11, Billy Joe and Katie Smith celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and a life together that includes having three children, adopting a fourth child and welcoming more than 30 foster children into their home.
The next day, he drove his route for the last time.
"That's what he gave me for a 50th anniversary present," Katie Smith said.
The Smiths live in a farmhouse built in 1912. When they bought it 43 years ago, it came with 37 acres. They picked up more land as they could, and they now have 119 acres.
In their time together, Smith has had a number of day jobs -- working for Western Electric, owning a country store, selling insurance, selling Electrolux vacuums, cutting timber. For many years, he farmed, raising tobacco, corn and soybeans.
His routine was to go to bed about 10 p.m., get up about 2 a.m., deliver the paper, come home, have breakfast and go to work at his day job. He became a skilled napper.
"When I sit down in a chair, I will be asleep in 30 seconds," he said. "If I can sleep 10 or 15 minutes, I will be well-rested."
Church has been an important part of their life -- they go to Friendship Baptist Church, which is just up the road, and, over the years, Smith found the time here and there to play softball and to go hunting and fishing.
Smith cultivates a three-acre garden. He gives away a lot of what he grows to people who aren't able to garden for themselves anymore. If they can't come get it, he delivers it.
"It's just the way I am, I guess," he said.
Even when he sells produce to someone, Katie Smith said, he throws in extra that he doesn't charge for.
Smith's father was a chef at the Hotel Robert E. Lee in Winston-Salem, and Smith grew up in Forsyth and Yadkin counties. After graduating from East Bend High School, he got a job with Western Electric in Winston-Salem.
He and his wife met when he showed up at her house one day to see if her sister, whom he had been dating, wanted to go for a ride in his new car -- a 1959 Ford. Her sister wasn't around so he asked her if she would like to go for a ride.
Sure.
With no hard feelings on her sister's part, Katie Smith said, they kept going out.
"He was nice," she said. "He was a Sunday school teacher."
They married and had children.
"If it had been up to him, we would have had 25 of our own," Katie Smith said. "He loves babies. He loves kids."
Instead, they started taking in foster children -- from newborns to teenagers.
"The most we ever had was four besides ours," Katie Smith said.
When the Smiths decided they wanted to adopt one of them -- Cindy -- they asked their children if that would be OK with them. It was.
In their 50 years together, the Smiths took one vacation -- a three-day trip to Cherokee with a daughter throwing the papers while he was gone. One vacation was plenty.
"It doesn't thrill me going places much," he said.
If he had it to do over, Smith said, he might tweak a little thing here and there. Mostly, though, he thinks things have turned out well.
"I've really enjoyed life," he said.
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
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