Stan the National Anthem Man

While they may be different ages, races, genders and natives of different hometowns, 3,000 or so people in the Delaware Valley came into the world to the tune of “Baby Face,” “Pretty Baby” and more courtesy of Stan Smith.

Smith isn’t a crooner whose tenor tones were piped into labor and delivery rooms: he is actually Dr. Stan Smith, board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist. Music has long been the avocation for the 73-year-old member of St. Katharine of Drexel Parish in Egg Harbor Township, whose vocation was medicine.

The Newark, N.J., native was reared in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father started working as a plumber for the U.S. Government when Smith was just three years old. After graduating from high school in Panama, Smith earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and math from Rutgers University and his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine. He interned at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital in Darby, Pa., and completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark.

He spent two years as a captain in the Air Force in Dover, Del. (“I’d always tell them, ‘Don’t worry fellows, your wife’s in good hands.’”). Afterwards, he moved to Cherry Hill (and later Medford), opened a sole practice in Marlton and joined the staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, West Jersey Health System and Memorial Hospital of Burlington County. And the music flowed.

“I sang to every baby I delivered,” he recalled.

He retired at age 51 in 1987 after a serious car accident left him with severe physical constraints that limited his practicing medicine. But he continued his music.

Today, Smith and his second wife, Bonnie, live in Mays Landing. They have had five children between them (three have passed away) and seven grandchildren, and Bonnie was a long-time CCD teacher until the couple moved from Church of the Assumption Parish in Galloway Township to St. Katharine’s.

The two do a lot together, including eating out and visiting the casinos, and Smith is inclined to break into song at restaurants and gambling halls as well as periodically sing with the Diocesan Choir, entertain at nursing homes and perform at weddings.

“I was brought up watching Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and thought that was a normal way to converse, through singing,” he said.

His father had been a performer, and as grand knight of the Knights of Columbus in the Panama Canal Zone, the elder Smith often entertained military in the area. “I used to watch my dad,” he said, “But I wasn’t into (singing) as a boy.” What eventually did hook Smith on entertaining in his teens was seeing “The Jolson Story” at the movies. He started singing at piano bars from New Jersey to Florida.

Self-trained, the amateur singer knows the lyrics to about 2,000 songs from beginning to end. “But don’t ask me what went on yesterday,” he quipped.

Indeed there have been days strolling the Boardwalk when Bonnie would simply press her husband’s back and he’d switch from one song to another to yet another. “We used to tell our friends I was like a walking jukebox,” Smith said.

One of the things he is most proud of — indeed what is heralded on his business card — is his reputation for singing the Star-Spangled Banner. “Stan the National Anthem Man,” as Smith is known, has performed Francis Scott Key’s patriotic song for numerous celebrations near his home and at Philadelphia Eagles’ and New Jersey Nets’ games, among other events. “I sing the National Anthem on a regular basis for all patriotic holidays in the Mays Landing area,” he said.

Smith is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; a member of the Panama Canal Society, which holds reunions each summer in Orlando; and a member of several musical groups, including the International Al Jolson Society, the Stockton Oratorio Society and the Dixieland Jazz Society of Hilton Head, S.C.

He enjoys singing in the style of various artists, including Al Jolson, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett and Elvis Presley. “I can stand on a stage for an hour and a half and do Jolson without taking a break,” he acknowledged.

Smith, who would like to one day produce a CD of some of his best works, including Spanish ballads, Broadway show tunes and original songs, doesn’t regret not being a professional. “Seeing how people respond to my singing is all the pay I need,” he said. “(Singing) means to me smiling faces, making people feel happy, just knowing that I’ve added joy to somebody’s life. I believe God gave me a golden voice, and I believe I must use it.”