ABINGDON, Va.— Gene Smith may be a modern-day renaissance man.
He’s a musician, who has been playing guitar and singing for decades.
“My first encounter with music was when I was five years old when a friend of my family came to visit us and was playing the guitar on the front porch,” Smith recalled. “Everyone went inside the house and the guitar was left on the swing. I walked over and strummed it. That’s when it all started.”
Smith, too, is a writer. Over the past couple of years, he’s had a couple of books released, including “The Lantern” (fiction) and “It’s Your Life: Decide Your Own Destiny” (non-fiction).
Born to Waymeth Eugene Smith and Myrtle Marie Stump, in 1943 at Wytheville, Virginia, Smith grew up to attend Marion Senior High School in Marion, Virginia. But he dropped out, eventually, to join the U.S. Air Force. He served four years in active duty and two years in the reserves.
In 1961, Smith married Nancy Carolyn Gross, of Seven Mile Ford, Virginia, and the couple had one daughter and three sons.
Music, however, kept calling. In 1967, Smith joined a Chilhowie, Virginia-based country band called The Starlighters. He played bass alongside a roster of other musicians, including Fields Sturgill, Billy Gross, Harlan Blevins and Harold Davenport.
About 30 years later, in 1997, Smith started singing with The Golden Oldies and traveling to retirement resorts and other places.
Today, this resident of Abingdon, Virginia, is promoting his books, including “The Lantern,” a novel which starts in New York and follows the path of character Jay Boe. This man makes his way to the Hotel Roanoke, where he meets Jenny Graham, and the two visit Roanoke’s Mill Mountain. From there, the journey continues along the Blue Ridge Parkway, eventually making it to Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
And that’s when Jay discovers the magic of an old lantern.
“Everything seemed to change when the lantern was lit,” Smith writes. “There was definitely some kind of power that was connected to it, like there was a story that hadn’t been told yet.”
In “The Lantern,” Smith tells that story, including how the characters make their way to Chetola Lake.
Smith’s other book, “It’s Your Life,” contains motivational passages and includes space to make notes.
“Complaining locks the door of opportunity and puts limits on what you are trying to create,” Smith writes in this 113-page paperback.
“Become a positive thinker. Stop complaining about everyone and everything because that only invites more of the same things,” Smith writes. “Decide that you are going to change your life … right now! Don’t allow another negative thought to enter your mind.”
jtennis@bristolnews.com | 276-791-0709 | @BHC_Tennis
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