The USC Trojans: Willis Smull's Children

PETER SMULL > SAMUEL SMULL m LORENA THOMPSON > WILLIS LEON "LEE" SMULL m Bessie Cox

1132 W 36th Pl, Los Angeles
The address is now an apartment building, but was a house
like the one to the right of the apartment complex

A while back, we talked about how the lines of the various family intersected. Lee's parents were an intersection of the Coopers and the Smulls, both major lines of my genealogy. Lee and Bessie farmed in South Dakota for several years, then moved into town to ensure their children got a good education. After Lee's untimely death from surgical complications in 1921, the family moved to Los Angeles, California. They lived at 1132 W 36th Place in Los Angeles, just blocks from the USC campus.

Lee and Bessie's four kids thrived in California. At least three of them graduated from USC in Los Angeles and all had successful careers. The two daughters never married.

Marlyn Smull and Carol Sharpe

Marlyn Archie Smull was born 21 Apr 1901 in Clark County, South Dakota. He married Carol Ophelia Sharpe on 30 Nov 1927 in Clark County. She was born 11 Aug 1902 in Clark County. While still in South Dakota, he attended Dakota Wesleyan, where he took part in football and basketball, band (piccolo), was on the debate team and belonged to the literary society.

Once in California, Marlyn attended USC and graduated with a degree in Commerce in 1925. During his time at USC, he was a faithful and devoted member of Sigma Phi Epsilon and stayed deeply involved with the fraternity for his lifetime. After his marriage, he was employed by the Adohr Creamery. In 1931, he was assistant route superintendent. He then began teaching school, spending a year teaching at Compton High School. He then took a position teaching at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where he advised the Sigma Phi Epsilon's. Eventually, he returned to California and moved to San Bernardino, where he taught at CSU-San Bernardino for the remainder of his career. He and his wife had no children. He died 07 May 1977 in San Bernardino and she died 20 Jul 1990 in San Diego County.

Mary Lorene (left)
Mary's co-author and landlord, Dr Gladys Vail (right)

Mary Lenore Smull was born 18 Jul 1902 in Clark County. She graduated from USC in 1926, her specialty being a dietician. She spent ten years after graduation working as director of dietetics at Methodist Hospital. In the late 1930s, she moved on to Kansas State University in Manhattan, where she directed campus cafeteria operations. While there, she with Dr. Gladys E Vail, authored School Lunches for Kansas Children, published in 1944. She also boarded with Dr. Vail during her time in Kansas.

She eventually returned to California and took a position as dietitian at South Bay Hospital in Redondo Beach. She also co-chaired an effort in the Southland to create a "Dial a Dietitian" so citizens could ask diet/food/health questions. That service started in 1964. Mary retired to the Chula Vista area, where Lois and Myron lived, and died in Bonita, San Diego County, 04 Apr 1999.

Myron at USC

Lois L Smull was born 08 Sep 1906 in Clark County. I'm not sure where she went to school, but couldn't find alumni info on her at USC. She was a bookkeeper by trade and prior to 1959 had been bookkeeper at the Fredericks Nursing Home and later at the Pacific Homes in Burbank. She retired to the Chula Vista area, where brother Myron and sister Mary lived. She died 10 May 1991 in Chula Vista.

Myron Leon Smull was born 14 Nov 1907 in Clark County. He graduated from with a physical education degree from USC in 1932 and got his teaching certificate and taught at Taft in Perris, California in 1935 in secondary education. He also received advanced degrees from USC in education and administration.While there, he suffered a broken leg while playing a night baseball game at a local diamond. By 1941, he was teaching at Sweetwater High School and by 1944 was assistant district superintendent of attendance. His early years he also assistant coached a number of sports. He married Wilda French and had two sons, Michael and Robert.

Older Myron

In 1946, he became principal of Southwest Junior High and principal of Mar Vista High School in 1955. He retired in 1969. He was also very involved in the community and served in many capacities including being  was past president of South Bay Kiwanis Club; board member of Imperial Beach Boys Club; board member, Imperial Beach Parks and Recreation Commission; honorary life member, Mar Vista PTA; member of South Shores California Retired Teacher Association; San Diego County Officials Association; National Educators' Association; Sweetwater Education Association; the Accreditation Committee for Western Assocation of Schools and Colleges and past member of Southwest Lodge No 283, F&AM.

He died in a hospital at age 66 on 04 Dec 1974 in San Diego County. His wife remarried in 1979 to John L White. Wilda died 01 Sep 1992 in San Diego County.

Peter Smull Family: Samuel Smull of South Dakota

PETER SMULL > SAMUEL SMULL m Lorena Thompson

(Click on the image to increase the size)

Lorena' mother
Anna Cooper Thompson Hardy
in Iowa

The Coopers and the Smulls of Stephenson County, Illinois, connected in multiple ways over the generations. Samuel Smull was the son of Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner who resided in Centre County, Pennsylvania until they moved to Stephenson County, Illinois in the 1850s. Samuel was born 27 May 1840 in Centre County. On 20 Aug 1866, he married Lorena Thompson, daughter of Ann Cooper and her first husband, Daniel Thompson in Mitchell County, Iowa. 

The young Smull family settled, along with other Smulls, in the 1860s in Chickasaw and Bremer Counties. Samuel and wife lived in Bradford, now a deserted town in Chickasaw County swallowed up by the larger Nashua, Iowa. Samuel served as a private in the 147th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry for a year (1865-1866) during the Civil War. In 1870, his farm land in Bradford area was valued at $4,000. In 1880, he was in very nearby Polk Township in Bremer County farming. Along with thousands of those lured by the call of cheap land, the Smulls moved to South Dakota in about 1884, residing at the time of the 1900 census in Richland Township. They homesteaded  on section 30 SW. 

Not a lot is known about them during their time there, but they did manage to make it into a couple of news items in the early 1900s:

Mesdames Almeda Herbst and Samuel Smull, from South Dakota, and Mrs MJ Smull of Plainfield came to the latter place Monday evening and have been visiting at Jas. Cooper's.
Nashua Reporter June 27, 1901
===
The James Williams family, John Bateen, and Mr & Mrs Smull ate turkey at See William's last Thursday.
Huron Journal World Spirit December 3, 1908
===.
Sam Smull has been under the weather for a couple of days.
Huron Journal World Spirit December 17, 1908

Sam died 06 Nov 1919 in Grand Island, Nebraska. The entire family had been en route to California when Sam fell ill. They removed him from the train at Grand Island and sent him to the hospital, where he died almost immediately. The family returned to Clark, SD with the remains for burial. His wife Lorena preceded him 07 Jun 1918.

Their two sons, Bertrum W and Willis Leon "Lee" farmed in South Dakota on the land in section 30 SW after their parents retired and moved to town. Bert was born in Aug 1873 and Lee was born 28 Dec 1874 in Iowa. 

Bert married Nellie Blanche Irwin on 13 Sep 1914 in Kingsbury, South Dakota. She was born on 14 Aug 1886 in Webster, Day, South Dakota. They had one son, Byron Eugene, born 16 Oct 1915 in South Dakota. Byron died 12 Apr 1983 in El Sereno, Los Angeles County, California. We know little about Byron other than he served in World War II, having enlisted with two friends from where he worked at Lockheed*. 

According to Bert's Find-a-Grave 133565997, "While on the farm Lee and Bert operated a threshing machine every fall. Bert Smull married Nellie Irwin who was a clerk in the C. W. Chambers store in Carpenter. After Bert and Nellie were married, they lived on the farm and later moved to a farm north east of Clark, where they lived until Bert's death in the early 1920's. Nellie and son, Byron moved then to Calif. Nellie was blind for many years before her death."

Bert died 09 Apr 1926 in Codington, South Dakota and Nellie died in Los Angeles County on 15 Sep 1973.

Lee married Elizabeth Emma "Bessie" Cox on 22 Nov 1899 in South Dakota. Bessie was born 14 Jan 1876 in New York. They had four children, Marlyn Archie, Mary Lorene, Lois, and Myron. Those kids are pretty interesting and will have a later post of their own. Education for the children seemed of the utmost importance to the couple. They would all attend college in South Dakota and later in California. Lee died from surgical complications on 22 Oct 1921 in Mitchell, South Dakota. His wife moved to California with the family after his death and died in Los Angeles County on 27 Nov 1944.The best tale comes from the obituary for Lee and outlines the lives of the Smulls:

* - Information from Ancestry member PEGGYSUEOGNE about her father, Edgar Vincent Nelson: "
 ARMY INDUCTION Fort MacArthur, San Pedro, CA He had been a Foreman at Lockheed Aircraft; he enlisted with his two friends Ronnie Blanchard and Byron Smull  30 July 1944