Z. Smith Reynolds (1911-1932)

The youngest child of R.J. and Katharine Reynolds, Zachary Smith Reynolds (1911-1932) won fame as a stunt pilot, rubbed elbows with Charles Lindbergh and other celebrity pilots, married twice, and completed the world’s longest point-to-point solo flight. Smith was born just a few years after the Wright brothers proved the wonders of aviation above the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Growing up at Reynolda, Smith watched as barnstormers performed spins, dives, and barrel rolls before landing on the lawn in front of Reynolda House. Three of the four Reynolds children learned to fly, but Smith and his older brother Dick became utterly absorbed by the sporting and business potential of aviation. The newspapers advertised Smith’s performances in “flying circuses” and reported on the record-breaking speed of his 1930 flight from New York to Los Angeles.

Smith’s greatest achievement in the air was a 17,000-mile solo journey from London to Hong Kong in 1931-1932. Later that year, while living at Reynolda, Smith died from a single gunshot wound to the head. He was twenty years old. His wife, Broadway star Libby Holman, and his friend and personal assistant, Albert Walker, were indicted for murder, but the case never came to trial. Distressed by the national coverage of the scandal, Smith’s uncle, William Neal Reynolds, announced the family’s wish to allow the case to close quietly. Whether an accident, suicide, or murder, the shooting cut short Smith’s promising career in aviation. In the words of the local paper, Smith was “a boy who flew through a short span of life on the wings of adventure.”