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Show ! y v : V y f J I 'I it ' ; r r j i FRIENDLY FRANK Acclaimed for his friendliness as an English milkman, Frank Smith checks one of the dials in his job as chief cook at the Pleasant Grove Canning Company. Former English Milkman Now Head Cook at Pleasant Grove Canning Co. From English butcher boy, to butcher's helper, to a World War I Cavalryman, to master butcher, to journeyman floor layer, to milkman milk-man and to America, is the story of Frank "Pop" Smith. Frank is the likeable head cook at the local plant of the Pleasant Grove Canning Can-ning Co. Frank was born in Rumford, Essex, Es-sex, England, the son of a middle class family of tradesmen. He left school at the age of 14, after completing com-pleting the "Ex-Seventh," comparable compar-able to the Eighth Grade in America. Am-erica. . JwFru- four years he served as a butciicr's apprentice, and at the age of 18, joined the "Seventh Lancers," cavalry regiment, and served for four years, part of which was in active combat in France during the Kaiser Wilhelm uprising. upris-ing. After the Armistice he returned to England and the butcher business busi-ness for the next nine years. During Dur-ing the reconstruction period following fol-lowing World War I, he worked as an expert hardwood floor layer for 14 years. During World War II he worked as a milkman in his home town of Romford. How well he succeeded succeed-ed in this capacity is revealed in a clipping from the "Romford Times," titled "Housewives' Fare well for Frank, The Handy Milkman." Milk-man." A band of housewives gathered together in the living room of 105 Cross-road, Romford, on Thursday raised their glasses of wine and drank to the health of a blushing, smiling figure in one comer of the room the milkman. In the nine years he had been delivering milk to their homes, 53-year-old Frank Smith had become be-come famous among the housewives house-wives for his cheerfulness and civility. civ-ility. On Sunday he sailed for America Amer-ica with his wife. But before he went his customers wanted to demonstrate the friendship and understanding un-derstanding which had sprung up between them. Led by Mrs. Henderson Hen-derson of 105 Cross-road, they made a collection among themselves. them-selves. Customers in Cross-road. Birch-road, Ma-wneys-road, Hain-aut-road, Forest-road, Elm-road, and Orchard-road readily subscribed subscrib-ed so that on Thursday they were able to present Frank with a splendid wrist watch and key-chain. key-chain. For his wife a leather bag and purse. To Mrs. Smith, Frank's customers custom-ers wrote: "We shall miss his cheerful smile. He has always been very obliging and civil and that (Continued on page 6) English Milkman (Continued from page 1) means so mucn to housewives as you yourself well know." Frank was indeed obliging". More than just, tha milkman he became general handyman, always ready to step in and deal with any small problem. There were chuckles at Thursday's gathering as one housewife house-wife recalled the day she summoned sum-moned Frank in to wring a chicken's chick-en's neck and another told how he found time to wind up her clock which had a shaky spring. Tn one customer, a crippled man who is now dead, Frank was almost a part-time housekeeper, lighting his fire, cutting his bread, and even, on occasion, mending the chimney. Said Frank in return: "I couldn't have wished for a belter crowd of customers. I never had any trouble about payment and we had plenty of laughs. I'm certainly going go-ing to keep in touch with them when I get to America." A native of Romford, Frank has been living at 46 Malvern-road, Romford. Destination for him and his -wife when they sailed from Southhampton on Sunday was Salt Lake City where they will rejoin their only child, a married daughter, daugh-ter, who went to America in 19-14. "I'll be living on a farm, near the souroe of supply," remarked Frank with a laugh to a Romford Times reporter. During June, 1954, Frank and his wife, the former Lily St. Pier, joined the LDS Church through the kindly efforts of the Timpan-ogos Timpan-ogos Stake Missionaries. He lives with his wife in a little house at the - rear of" the Locust Avenue heme of his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. arid Mrs. Ray Mills. When asked how he liked life in America, Frank said, "I feel that it was a fortunate; day for us when we arrived in America and established estab-lished our permanent home 'in Pleasant Grove. My work at , the local Canning Company has been pleasant and has helped me to become be-come accustomed to the American way of doing things. "Of course the other employees kidded me a little at first due to my English brogue; but that's all over now, and I feel that I am one of them. My present employers, employ-ers, like those I had in England, appreciate a 'good day's work for a good day's pay,' and that's the kind of service I always hope to render. "Joining the LDS Church has made our lives richer and fuller; especially is my wife happy with the opportunities made possible for association with the many fine ladies in the ward." |