Tom and Janet Smith celebrate 50th anniversary
Dr. Thomas E. Smith and Janet Klapman Smith recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with their children, Eric and Natalie Smith and Kim and Ed Redmond, and their grandchildren, Frazier, Cooper and Jensen Redmond.
They were married Aug. 28, 1966, at Mount Tabor Lutheran Church in West Columbia, where they are still active members. Janet has been a member since she was baptized there in 1948; five generations of the Klapman family have been members at Mount Tabor.
Tom is a retired elementary school principal, serving as the first principal at Pierce Terrace Elementary School at Fort Jackson and Nursery Road Elementary in Irmo. Then, for 20 years, he was the principal of Springdale Elementary in West Columbia, where he had begun his career teaching fourth and sixth grades.
Janet worked at Crafts-Farrow State Hospital and the S.C. Employment Commission before their children were born. She was a stay-at-home mom for 15 years, then worked at Pineview Elementary with 4-year-old and 5-year-old kindergartners for 20 years.
During their 50 years of marriage, the Smiths were “bitten by the travel bug,” Janet writes.
“Tom tested his travel planning and driving skills when navigating through Greece, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, Germany and many trips to France. He passed all tests with flying colors – even having to drive on the left side of the road with a stick shift in some countries,” his wife writes. “Thankfully, Tom had overcome a fear of flying when taking a Springdale (Elementary) Olympics of the Mind school team to Ames, Iowa – otherwise, we would have had to find another hobby.”
In the Americas, they visited Wyoming, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Texas, Canada, Mexico, South Dakota, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, California, and, of course, the mountains and the beach.
“We feel so very blessed to have our family close to us and to enjoy our travels through life together,” Janet writes. “Fifty years pass very quickly when you’re having fun together.”