Darwood Smith

[Stan]

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - Darwood Smith, who played Waldo in the ``Our Gang Series,'' died Wednesday after he was struck on the head while on a daily walk. He was 72.

Smith died after someone drove up in a truck and hit him. He was rushed to Riverside Community Hospital where he died later that night.

No arrests have been made.

Smith was known as Darwood Kaye when he was a child. He appeared in 22 of the ``Our Gang'' comedies, working with other child actors, including Robert Blake. Smith also was in a 1944 Lucille Ball film called ``Best Foot Forward.''

When Smith was a teen, he became a Christian and ended his acting career. Smith became a pastor in the Seventh-day Adventist church and lived in Thailand for 14 years performing missionary work.

He served as pastor at churches in St. Helena in Northern California, Santa Maria and several communities in Southern California.

Smith retired in 1994 but worked part-time at La Sierra University Seventh-day Adventist Church, a 2,500- member congregation near the university.

[addvantage]

I was on vacation to Washington state to see my dad, when I finally was able to access my e-mail on my laptop. From that, I received a notice from the incoming Adventist Review. When I logged on to the Review site, I saw the notice on Darwood's death. I showed this to my wife, and she confirmed that it was he who was her mother's second cousin.

Then when we returned to Colorado, we attended the eastern slope campmeeting, where Elder Dan Smith was the Sabbath guest speaker. He briefly mentioned that his fater recently died, and mentioned "Riverside." My wife perked right up to listen, and put one and two together. After the service, she asked Dan if his late father's name was "Darwood." He confirmed that and we rushed home to get her parents and returned to Campmeeting. There, we had a brief "family" reunion.

This whole string of events had to take place, or this short mention of his father's passing would have gone right over our heads, and we would have never known.

I love this small SDA world...