(This story was originally written and recorded for Retrocast 43, released on July 9, 2026.)
This story begins on June 24, 1956, when 32-year-old Susie Mae Stroud was driving a blue 1950 Buick along Washington Street in Akron, Ohio. Without warning, she lost control of the car, crashing into two other vehicles before slamming into a utility pole.
The Buick belonged to Jimmy Smith, who had loaned it to Mrs. Stroud. His wife, Julia Smith, was riding with her at the time. Fortunately, no one was injured.
There was one major problem, however: Jimmy Smith had no insurance on the car. When the owner of one of the damaged vehicles demanded $200 in compensation – about $2,300 today – Smith couldn’t afford to pay. As a result, the State of Ohio suspended his driver’s license until the debt was satisfied.
With Smith being the most common surname in the United States, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that Akron was home to more than one James Smith during the 1950s. In fact, when The Akron Beacon Journal reported on this story on December 5, 1957, the newspaper checked the city directory and found 68 James Smiths living in Greater Akron. Add in two Jimmies and one Jim, and the total climbed to 71.
That brings us to a different James Smith – James Wilbur Smith.
On September 3, 1957, he stopped by the Akron Auto Club to renew his driver’s license. Everything appeared to be routine until October 1, when he received a letter from Roger W. Friend, head of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, informing him that his driver’s license had been revoked because he had failed to pay damages resulting from an automobile accident.
A second letter identified the accident as the one that had occurred the previous year on Washington Street. Smith immediately wrote back, explaining that the state had the wrong man.
The response was hardly reassuring. State officials informed him that the only way to regain his license was to either pay the $200 or post a bond for the same amount while appealing the decision.
Instead, Smith hired attorney Marion E. Snyder.
Snyder contacted the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and explained that they had mistaken his client for someone else. He enclosed a copy of the police report along with a sworn affidavit in which James Wilbur Smith stated that he had never been involved in a car accident, had never owned a Buick, had always carried insurance on his vehicles, and had never lived at the address of the Jimmy Smith whose car had been involved in the crash.
Meanwhile, The Akron Beacon Journal tracked down the real Jimmy Smith at his workplace. He confirmed, “Yes, I owned that car and let Mrs. Stroud drive it. No, I never got a letter about my license. No, I haven’t paid the damages because Mrs. Stroud and her husband said they would pay me for my car and I haven’t gotten the money yet.”
Smith explained that he had purchased the Buick just three months before the accident for $345—roughly $4,200 today. The collision totaled the car, and because he couldn’t afford to replace it, he had been riding the bus to work every day ever since.
When a reporter told him that another Jimmy Smith was being denied his driver’s license because of the mix-up, he simply replied, “That sure ain’t right.”
The newspaper couldn’t help but wonder how the state had confused the two men. They didn’t even live in the same part of town. Even more striking, the Jimmy Smith who owned the Buick was a 60-year-old African American man, while James Wilbur Smith was a 47-year-old white man.
You can probably guess what happened next.
The day after the story appeared in the newspaper, Motor Vehicles chief Roger Friend announced, “We’ll try to get Mr. Smith’s papers in the mail yet this afternoon. He should have his license in a few days.”
