Packy Smith

When I entered the restaurant with a friend, we saw two men eating lunch. One of them was Douglas Green, known as Ranger Doug of the Western musical group Riders in the Sky. The other was Packy Smith, my cousin.   

The friend smiled. “See those two?” he said. “If they passed away, ninety percent of the world’s knowledge on Western movies would be lost.”   

Packy did indeed pass away a few years ago, leaving Ranger Doug as one of the lone protectors of Western traditions. But in the years before he died, Packy did great things.  

My first memories of him were on a family vacation in Nashville, when he and a buddy drove us around East Nashville in a convertible. On that same trip, Packy tried to teach Russ, Carol, and me how to play pool in his basement. Did not go well. 

A few years later, Packy got a degree in library science, which was a surprise until we learned that he had specialized in Western books and movies. About that same time, he and his wife moved to a small house in Burbank just a few blocks from Disney and showed the films to his friends on Friday nights.   

Not long after that, Packy formed his own company, Riverwood Press, and began big-time collecting and sales. Years later, he would invite my wife Yvonne and me to his house, which he had returned to in Nashville, to watch movies in his viewing room. 

About that same time, the little town of Lone Pine, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, caught his eye, since dozens of Western movies had been filmed there. From that time to his death, Packy ran the very popular Lone Pine Film Festival.  

In between festivals, he lived in Nashville, and I used to have a weekly lunch with Packy and his brother Scrappy. A year later I lost my lunch partner, as did Scrappy and Ranger Doug.   

As did a world that needs all the color and interest and excitement it can get.