Orris W. Smith was born in Camden on September 8, 1920, to Edward and Catherine Smith. The 1924 City Directory lists the family at 1113 Carpenter Street. By 1929, they had moved to 2827 Concord Avenue in Cramer Hill, and by April of the following year, they had relocated next door to 2825 Concord Avenue. At that time, Edward Smith and his daughter Ethel were both working at Haddon Press. Also living at 2827 Concord Avenue in April 1930 were Ethel’s husband, Jack Thomson, their nearly two-year-old son Jackie Thomson, and another Smith daughter, Catherine.
After serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, Orris W. Smith returned to Cramer Hill and was living at 913 North 25th Street when the 1947 Camden City Directory was compiled.
Tragedy struck the Smith family on September 6, 1949. Orris’s six-year-old son, Orris Martin Smith, was one of thirteen people killed by mass-murderer Howard Unruh. Orris Martin was sitting on a hobby horse having his hair cut for the first day of school in Clark Hoover’s River Avenue barbershop while his mother watched in horror.
Orris Smith later moved to 2818 Pierce Avenue. He was an active member of Mathews-Purnell Post 518 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose post home was at 2712 Hayes Avenue in Cramer Hill.
Orris W. Smith died on December 9, 1957, while at his job at Belmont Iron Works at 22nd and Washington Avenue in Philadelphia, where he had been employed since 1940.
In addition to his membership in the V.F.W., Orris W. Smith was a member of Fairview Methodist Church at 2301 River Road in Cramer Hill and Mozart Lodge 121, Free and Accepted Masons.
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