Sunday, April 17, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN L. SMITH: A son bids farewell to a mother who always fought the good fight

Contrary to popular belief inside local Democratic Party circles, my mother, Janet Curtis Smith, could not actually start a fight in an empty room.

Throw in just one Republican, however, and someone had better call a cop. A donnybrook was guaranteed.

Toss in a hundred Republicans, and the odds would almost even out. But there was really no question Mom would come out the winner. After all, she always said, the Democrats had right on their side.

My mother, who died Tuesday morning at age 76, lived to fight the good fight as she defined it. She was a true believer who never flinched from a battle no matter how long the odds.

Like all good soldiers, she was at her best when there was a war on. She wasn't as comfortable in peacetime. If one of her six children was in trouble, she was on the scene like a U.S. Marine. If a favorite candidate needed to squeeze a few votes out of the cow counties, she was off like a Pony Express rider.

As children in Henderson, we were drafted into whatever campaign Mom was working. My father painted signs, and the rest of us went door to door. Our family station wagon was plastered with hundreds of bumper stickers. Whether it was "Sawyer in '66" or "We Like Mike," our wagon featured more advertisements than a NASCAR Dodge.

Mom entered politics by accident. In the 1950s, she circulated a petition in an attempt to force Henderson chemical plant bosses to comply with a minimum standard of pollution safety. She soon realized the bosses controlled much of Henderson's political structure, but it didn't stop her from fighting for what was right.

It was about that time she met Mike and Carolyn O'Callaghan. She welcomed them to Henderson, where Mike had taken a teaching job, by giving them a baby crib and clothes for the newest addition to their family.

She remained fiercely loyal friends with the O'Callaghans the rest of her life. Along the way, she took out a second mortgage on our Henderson house and donated it to O'Callaghan's underdog gubernatorial campaign, helping guide him to a surprise victory in 1970.

She then served as O'Callaghan's administrative assistant in Southern Nevada and used every minute to defend the governor and kick-start Nevada's notoriously penurious government into acknowledging its obligation to the poor, elderly and mentally ill.

Through the years, Mom marched for civil rights, joined the NAACP, stood with my father on the union picket line, bought bonds for Israel, and collected food and clothing for countless poor families. I lost winter coats three years running to down-and-out kids but learned a valuable lesson.

She had the uncanny ability to extract charitable donations from the old casino crowd's most formidable men. Moe Dalitz and Benny Goffstein couldn't resist Mom's impassioned pleas.

After six years in the O'Callaghan administration, Mom left politics to care for her ailing mother. After her mother died, she owned a ceramic tile store with her twin brother, Jerry Curtis, and later became a justice of the peace in Jean on the recommendation of then-County Commissioner Manny Cortez.

Being a justice of the peace in that rural area, where more than half the population lived below the poverty line, meant more than presiding over traffic disputes and felony arraignments. To be effective, a judge had to be one part social service administrator and one part marriage counselor.

True to her nature, Mom was hated by trucking companies and respected by the Nevada Highway Patrol. At 11 a.m. Monday at the Palm Mortuary on Cheyenne Avenue, there are sure to be troopers on hand to bid her farewell.

My mother was sometimes wrong, but she was never in doubt. She was a liberal back when the Democrats were more interested in equality and civil rights than in being well-liked. She believed in the power of government to improve people's lives and bring a balance to the races and the sexes.

I was honored to be at her side when she gave up her final battle to lung cancer.

True to her indefatigable spirit, she was brave and fought the good fight until the very last.

John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.