Wonderful Smith

In Rita Dove's poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove," Wonderful Smith adorns like the panache of jewelry the "free arm" of his good friend "Miss Mac" (as Smith was wont to call McDaniel) while the two walked arm in arm into that storied venue where Ms. McDaniel was about to receive her Academy Award for her role in the 1939 movie "Gone With the Wind." While we always seem to find him in the margins or as some kind of postscript to the fame of others, the poem underscores the point that in his life and in the lives of those who had the great fortune to know him or perchance to see him perform there was a quality about Wonderful Smith that simply sparkled. Even his name, Wonderful, he would frequently say with a twinkle in his eye, resulted from the thrill his parents felt at his birth. Eight other siblings adhered to rather conventional names. Telling of this quality to sparkle, whether on the arm or just in the company of others, is the story of how Smith met Hattie McDan