John Smithers had spent more than six decades looking for clues about the father who abandoned the family when he was just a baby. The barrel-chested, brash-talking Smithers had something he wanted to give his old man: a fist in the nose.
At 82, he had about given up on ever learning what happened to James William Smithers. The Raleigh, N.C., man had long suspected his father got in trouble with the law and fled abroad. Decades ago, it was easy enough to disappear, and Smithers’ father had seemingly vanished into thin air.
On the other side of the world, Lucinda Gray had always wondered what her father’s life was like before he moved mysteriously from the United States to Australia. She had spent years just trying to find out his real name.
In December, Smithers and Gray learned their elusive fathers were one and the same.
Read the full article in the March 23, 2009 edition of ScrippsNews.
