Samantha Reed Smith ('80s child peace activist)

[The Four Doctor]

https://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/23/a-little-girls-legacy/

Remembering America's Sweetheart, an ambassador of peace, and a promising young actress.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Thanks for posting this, because it's a timely message given recent events.

Samantha Smith was a very brave and thoughtful little girl who was an inspiration for a lot of people in the US and Soviet Union and beyond, adults and children alike. I have vague memories of her visit to the USSR from my childhood, and of the sadness that accompanied her subsequent death. The sense of anxiety about nuclear war among children was palpable given the ramping up of rhetoric at the time. We didn't fully understand the political dynamics of it all, but we got enough to make us occasionally nervous.

I recall the film Amazing Grace and Chuck being (very) loosely based on her story, with the child as peace ambassador for nuclear disarmament and the athlete who supported him being the one killed in a plane crash. Not a great movie (or even good) looking back as an adult, but still something that resonated with me at the time because of her story.

It's wonderful to see the Russian man she inspired carrying on her work now that he lives in the US. Here's hoping that her message of peace will resonate with people once again.

 

[Refuge]

Yes, thank you for sharing that. I don't think I was aware of this as I'm trying to remember but how special is someone that they can touch a heart and keep a legacy alive. It's inspiring. We have the ability to communicate so casually these days with so much volume that the impact of our words can get lost like noise. I was going through some photos just this weekend and found some handwritten letters! I was told to keep them and am so glad I did. A letter from Nanny and Mum and even one from hubby when he was in the Navy. Time capsules.

Imagine communicating, sending a letter to a world leader and it making a difference

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Thanks for sharing. I had frankly never heard of her yet but she seems to have been exactly the sort of person we'd need right now.
And we could do with a second Andropov as well. And a second Jimmy Carter - ending the war between Egypt and Israel was quite an achievement.
I vividly recall the Cold War of the 60s and 70s and while it's not half as bad now than it was back then there's always a "yet" lurking in the background...

 

[J.T.B.]

I remember that story well, IIRC she went to the USSR in the summer of '83; I was staying with my grandparents for the summer, which was also memorable for significant local flooding.

I saw her on The Tonight Show before and after her trip, and she seemed very natural and genuine, Johnny Carson seemed quite impressed with her. Tensions were very high at that time, because Reagan was talking tough and no one knew what the new Soviet leader meant. Pershing II medium-range nuke missiles were being deployed in Germany, despite a lot of big protests. In the fall it was The Day After on TV, and I kind of thought, well, this is probably what's going to happen.

It was very sad when she and her dad were killed. Everyone knew her as this sincere, smart smiling kid with a great future, and then, gone. Pilot error, missed the approach in the dark, tried to correct, got too low and hit trees.

BTW I remember asking my grandpa what he thought about the death of Yuri Andropov. "Well he dropped off, didn't he?" he said.

 

[The Four Doctor]

Samantha hosted a kid-orientated special for Disney on the 1984 U.S. Presidential Election. Gary Hart and Walter Mondale turned down an interview for it. Samantha also states in the special that being President is not a job she'd like to have.
Here's a screenshot from the series she was filming when she died. The dress is very eighties - my niece said "how can she move her torso in that thing"