Saratoga News Laura Frost Smith's story touched a chord Mary Ann Cook OLDEST VET: The oldest known veteran of World War I has been living at the Meadows for eight years. But she died soon after we got word of the story. She was Laura Frost Smith, 105, and her Seattle granddaughter had written an article about her for the Seattle Post that generated the most response of any story appearing in the Post in recent memory. Mary Lou Kistle of Saratoga is Smith's daughter and also mother of the newspaper reporter, Carol Smith. Here's her story. In the days when single women rarely ventured from home, Laura Frost took nurses' training and then signed on to be an army nurse. She departed for the war in high spirits. "We'll have the Huns on the run in no time," she wrote her parents, and described dancing and waltzing with captains and majors. She was convinced that going to war would be quite a romantic adventure. But one day in a field hospital in France brought home the reality. She was assigned to the amputation ward. "She tries to block out the sound of limbs dropping into enamel buckets as surgeons saw through mangled flesh and bones," Smith's story says. She confessed she cried the entire first day. Later, she was even closer to the front and was issued a helmet, a gas mask, mess kit and canteen. World War I was the first time that poison gas, aerial bombing and machine guns were used, and casualties were so grim that "sometimes all you could do was hold their hands as they died." The two things she could never erase from memory were the blood and the mud. Besides the horrors of war and the never-ending mud, World War I vets also had to battle the worldwide influenza epidemic, which killed more people than the war--21 million, compared with 8 million war casualties. Laura Frost was not immune either: she woke up one morning in a hospital bed, after surviving a flu-induced coma. Even after the war, after tending mangled bodies, outlasting bullets and every horror the war could throw at her, she still encountered hostility. "No one knew or noticed I was a returning veteran." (Despite the fact that she was in uniform.) Nurses were accorded neither respect nor appreciation. War was a male role and the prevailing attitude was that women were not to be involved. Decades later, she could identify with Vietnam vets. After the war, she became an obstetrical nurse, married at age 32, and had two children. "I was in awe of my grandmother," says Carol Smith. "She could do everything from wire a lamp to knit a blanket." And, when her first great-grandchild was born deaf, the nonagenarian learned sign language, even though arthritis crippled her fingers. Her war experiences made Laura Frost Smith a lifelong pacifist and champion of equal rights--both for women and minorities. The Post story obviously touched a universal chord: Smith received 2,000 messages from people who wanted to applaud her grandmother. RECITAL: At this recital the teachers as well as the students performed. The School of Piano at Azule Crossing held a recital at the Foothill Club on a November Sunday. At 2 p.m. some 25 beginning students demonstrated what they had learned. Later that afternoon the advanced students and their teachers held forth. Students performing were Constance Christodulis, adult; Sasha Wiant, 15; Marina Wiant, 13; and Michael Kalisvaart, 17. Teachers were led off by the piano school's owner/director, Kerstin Stone, followed by Jeannine Infantino; Vania Rabago, who sang a Gershwin number; Jennifer Rivers; John Casados; Philip Kim; and Bernadette Alipio, who accompanied guest violinist Eric Finley and singer Rabago. SEEKING MEMBERS: The History Club of Los Gatos is reaching out for members, and you don't have to be a Los Gatan. The venerable club is 101 years old and holds two major fundraisers yearly--a rummage sale in March and a fashion show/tea in April. The club supports community projects and local charities and meets monthly on the third Wednesday of the month. For more information call Norma Williams at 356-5371. LIBRARY GALA: For the first time ever, the library will hold a gala. It's scheduled for April 24, sponsored by Friends of the Library, and part of the reason for it is to increase community awareness of library needs. Marsha Manzo is chairwoman of the gala. USED BOOKS: Used books are needed for the book fair to be held at Villa Montalvo March 20. The sale benefits the Phelan Library, which volunteers are working to restore to its 1930 splendor by building a collection authentic and reminiscent of Senator Phelan's own noted collection. To donate books call Althea Andersen at 650/254-1148. AIR TIME: Les Landin, whose Buckskin Bob reunion we mentioned last week, tells us that the session featuring some of the "kids" who appeared on Landin's KQED TV show back in the early days of the station will be shown on KPIX-Channel 5's "Evening Magazine" on Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 2, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.