- Zachary Smith Reynolds
Zachary "ZACH-O" Smith Reynolds (
November 5 ,1911 -July 6 ,1932 )
Americanamateur aviator andR. J. Reynolds heirFamily
Smith (also known as
Z. Smith Reynolds , or just Smith) was the youngest son ofR. J. Reynolds , founder of theR.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company , and Mary Katherine Smith.He married Anne Ludlow Cannon (
August 31 ,1910 -June 21 ,1961 ) inYork, South Carolina November 16 ,1929 soon after he turned eighteen at her father's insistence. She was the daughter of Joseph Franklin Cannon (July 23 ,1876 -June 21 ,1939 ) of the Cannon Mills fortune and Annie Hunt Ludlow (December 9 ,1887 -March 10 ,1965 ). They had a daughter known as Anne Cannon II (August 23 ,1930 -May 11 ,2003 ). They were divorced inReno, Nevada November 23 ,1931 . Anne marriedCharlotte, North Carolina realtor Frank Brandon Smith, Jr. (May 21 ,1906 -June 25 ,1967 ) in 1934 and they were later divorced.Smith Reynolds married
Broadway theatre actressLibby Holman SundayNovember 29 ,1931 in the parlor ofMonroe, Michigan Justice of the Peace Fred M. Schoepfer, just days after his divorce from Anne was final. Libby gave birth to Christopher Smith "Topper" Reynolds three months prematurely onJanuary 11 ,1933 inPennsylvania Hospital inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania , weighing 3.5 pounds. Christopher graduated near the top of his class fromThe Putney School inVermont in June 1949 where he served as chairman of the student council.Biography
Smith was an avid aviator as was older brother "Dick". Smith bought a S.56C
amphibianbiplane built by American Aeronautical Corporation inPort Washington, New York under license from Italian manufacturerSavoia-Marchetti in the spring of 1931, it was customized for him to have a single seat and extra fuel capacity as he planned to fly it around the world.After a couple aborted starts Smith began this flight attempt in December 1931 right after his marriage to Libby. She was touring theUnited States in a road production of "Three's A Crowd", reprising herBroadway theatre role. His solo flight was not really publicized and he was completing the ocean portions via boat. His flight journal survives.Death
Reynolds died under mysterious circumstances of an automatic .32 caliber
Mauser pistol shot through his head on the early morning of July 6th, after a 21st birthday party for his friend Charles Gideon Hill, Jr. (July 5 ,1911 -October 18 ,1960 ), who was also Anne Cannon Reynolds's first cousin, at hisWinston-Salem, North Carolina estate known as Reynolda. His wifeLibby Holman Reynolds was pregnant with their child.Smith was reportedly found bleeding and unconscious by his boyhood friend and personal assistant Albert Bailey "Ab" Walker (
December 10 ,1909 inChicago, Illinois -August 2 ,1954 ) who died of lung cancer at North Carolina Baptist Hospital,Winston-Salem, North Carolina ), and with the help of his wife, Libby Holman Reynolds, they brought him toNorth Carolina Baptist Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 5:25AM on July 6th. Both were considered suspects in his death and were both indicted for first-degree murder of Reynolds. His siblings established a trust in his name that provided for his namesake foundation.Legacy
Many things in the
Winston-Salem, NC area are named for him. The local airport (Smith Reynolds Airport ), [http://zsr.wfu.edu/ a library at Wake Forest University] , as well as a nonprofit charitable [http://www.zsr.org/ local foundation] named in his honor.References
* Reynolds, Patrick and Shachtman, Tom, "The Gilded Leaf" , iUniverse, Inc., 2006, ISBN 0-595-36658-9
* Machlin, Milt, "Libby", Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., 1990, ISBN 0-8439-3028-4External links
* [http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/Page/WSJ_ContentPage&c=Page&cid=1173351970597 Winston-Salem Journal Series Death at Reynolda - Z. Smith Reynolds]
* [http://www.zsr.org/ The Z Smith Reynolds Foundation]
* [http://www.smithreynolds.org/ Z. Smith Reynolds Airport]
* [http://www.paulbowles.org/photosjanebowles.html/ Biography of Libby Holman Reynolds on the official Jane Bowles site]
*cite news
author=
title=Reynolds v. Reynolds
date=1933-01-23
work=Time Magazine
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,744981-1,00.html
accessdate=2008-08-09
*ibdb name | id=22947 | name=Libby Holman
*imdb name | id=2071916 | name=Libby Holman
* [http://www.aviastar.org/air/italy/savoia_s-56.php Savoia-Marchetti S.56]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.