I grew up with pervasive tobacco company advertising and thought little about it. My father was a smoker, my mother was not. I found it mildly unpleasant to be around smokers. Then, perhaps in the 1960s, it started to become clear that tobacco smoke was a significant health hazard. First to smokers, then later it became clear that tobacco smoke was a hazard to involuntary smokers. In the bad old days, I vividly remember being involuntarily subjected to smoke in business meetings, restaurants, airplanes, where ever I went. I've had many conversations with smokers, both friends and strangers, about what their habit was doing not only to themselves, but to me and other innocent bystanders. To almost no effect; I have found it almost impossible to sway a smoker.

Anyway, here some examples of how smoking has affected me:

William Edgar McKemie Jr (18-Sept-1918 - 23-Feb-1994)

My father was a life long smoker. I believe he took it up shortly after he joined the US Army just before Pearl Harbor in 1941. He smoked cigarettes until about 1980, when he tried, on doctor's advice, to cut back on tobacco use by smoking only cigars. Though he had other health problems, he died of lung cancer. A few years before his death, he developed macular degeneration and was nearly blind years before his death. It was only after his death that we learned that macular degeneration was closely associated with tobacco use.

Raymond Mason (20-Aug-1919 - 30-Dec-1996)

My father-in-law was also a long time smoker; he was able to give it up after by-pass surgery in about 1983. Ray was very active and slender; not the type of person you might think would have heart trouble. Smoking was about his only risk factor. Ray died of esophageal cancer, which is a type associated with smoking.

Eli Hargrove Moores (22-Mar-1882 - 6-Nov-1970)

My grandfather had been a heavy smoker in his earlier years, but had been able to give it up before my time. I have no recollection of him being a smoker. He died from lung cancer. Even though he was 88 at the time, he was otherwise in good health. I have many fond childhood memories of accompanying him on daily farm inspection trips after he had turned over farm operation to his son, Ely.

Ely Taylor Moores (9-July-1912 - 20-Oct-1990)

My uncle (mother's brother) was a cigarette smoker as early as I can remember, and that is from my early childhood in the 1940s. He retired from row-crop farming and took up truck farming as a hobby. I shared many interests with him; he was an avid grower of strawberries, grapes, blueberries, and blackberries. A few years before he died, he developed first lung cancer and later other cancers.

Laverne Moores McKemie (5/29/1914 - 4/10/2001)

My mother never smoked voluntarily. However, she was exposed to a great deal of cigarette smoke both from my father and her bridge playing friends. Many times I visited her during bridge afternoons and found the house so thick with smoke that you could not clearly see across the room. "This stuff is bad for you, you need to stop these people from smoking on you!" I would say. "These are my FRIENDS, I can't ask them not to smoke!" she would reply. Years later, after the smoking had declined, I recall some of her friends bringing their oxygen generators to the bridge parties. My mother died of congestive heart failure. I feel that involuntary smoking was a significant contributing factor.

George Clifton Handkins

I did not well know this uncle (husband to my father's sister). I do know well his son and my cousin, GC Handkins Jr. George Sr was a long time cigarette smoker and died of lung cancer. Cliff Jr is currently a heavy smoker.

John Wilkinson

John was a neighbor, friend, and, for a time, my boss at Tracor. John was never a voluntary smoker. In the US Air Force, he did fly long hours with smokers and he was exposed to a great deal of smoke at Tracor. He first developed lung cancer. I remember how all his friends were relieved and happy for him when he went with no sign of cancer for about five years after 1/3 of a lung was removed. He died about seven years later of pancreatic cancer.

Frank McBee Jr

Frank was for many years the driving force and head of Tracor. I knew him only peripherally. He was a long time heavy smoker. He died in about 2000, probably from emphysema or lung cancer.

Dan Wolf

Dan was a fellow truck farmer, though he supported his family with an insurance business. I don't know when Dan started smoking, but I know him to be a heavy smoker from about 1978 until his death in about 1999. Dan was everyone's friend, I liked him as did everyone he encountered. Dan was widely known as a grower of blackberries and Kieffer pears. He died of lung cancer. A month or so before his death, he came by the Tuesday afternoon Elgin Farmers Market to visit with friends; that was the last time I saw him.

Bill Butler

Back in the 70s and I guess into the 80s, Bill was a very good and close friend. We got into a lot of "stuff" together. I remember especially missing a flight out of Naples because we had had too many farewell bottles of wine together the previous evening. The eventual flight home, hung over, was memorable, but not enjoyable at the time. Though he was a dedicated smoker, he did not die as a result of his smoking. I do recall his terrible experience, back in the 70s, with periodontal disease. He had surgery that involved pulling all his gums back from his teeth and scraping out the area below the gum line. He was unable to eat solid food for at least a week. At that time we had no idea of the cause. Since then, periodontal disease has been linked to tobacco use.

Kent Anderson

I never met Kent face to face. To me, he was a denizen of electronic communication; I first met Kent on a Central Texas computer club's bulletin board system, the HUB. Kent was the motivating force behind the "modem on wheels" service of the club. If a new comer was having difficulty getting connected with his modem, Kent or a member of the group would come over with diagnostic tools and get the modem set up properly. More recently, Kent "hung out" at the bulletin board computer "Rendezvous". Many times, I read of Kent's pleasure in sitting in front of his computer pondering someone else's problem and smoking a cigarette. Kent died of lung cancer in 2000.

Don Broadus (2/25/1933 - 11/27/2002)

I only knew Don a few years, he was a fellow seller at many of the markets I attend and also an active member of the associations that sponsor the markets. Don was a cigarette smoker before I knew him, afterwards, a pipe smoker. Even though he freely shared his pipe smoke with me, we were friends. I miss him. Don died, I believe, of congestive heart failure; we can not with certainty attribute it to smoking, but certainly smoking is a risk factor.