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Sneakers on the wire steered visitors to welcome mat

Puzzle of Caroline County sneakers up on a wire becomes clear: They steered many a visitor to one man's heart and home.

ROB HEDELT •   Rob Hedelt's archive •   E-mail Rob Hedelt

Date published: 5/15/2001

THE MYSTERY of the Frog Level Sneakers, which for years dangled from the same utility guide wire along U.S. 301 in a lightly settled stretch of Caroline County, has been solved.

But how those same sneakers recently found their way to the entrance of Lakewood Cemetery in Bowling Green is another story, one that underscores the respect a town felt about one of its own.

I first mentioned the sneakers in a column a month ago.

Mike Long, a truck driver from Colonial Beach, phoned to ask if I had any clues about the shoes. He said he's seen a pair of sneakers dangling from that wire on U.S. 301, south of Bowling Green, for more than 15 years.

Long said that through the years, the shoes had been taken down several times, but always were replaced by a new pair.

After Long called, I traveled
to find the shoes, about 12 miles south of Bowling Green, and couldn't find anyone who knew their history.

I asked readers with information about the shoes to get in touch.

None did until last week, when several Caroline folks contacted me to say the sneakers were a marker of sorts tossed up on
that wire by Kemp Smith, a well-known and respected Bowling Green banker and native who lived there on U.S. 301.

They were sorry to say they'd remembered to call about the sneakers only after hearing of Kemp's death May 5 at his home. The 58-year-old director and vice president at Caroline Savings Bank had cancer.

To get the full story on the sneakers, I talked to Kemp's fiancée, Betty Jo Mitchell of Caroline.

Mitchell, who had been introduced to Kemp at a Caroline High School homecoming game
a few years back by a match-making friend, said the banker and life-long Caroline County resident was a wonderful man, known for his humor and outgoing manner.

His willingness to open up his home to others is what put the sneakers up on the wire in the first place.

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Date published: 5/15/2001