Born on February 2, 1937, at the Fort Jay army post hospital on Governors Island in New York City, a bundle of joy named Thomas B. Smothers III, or Tommy as he would later be known, came into the world. Little did anyone know that this baby would grow up to be a comedic legend and a passionate advocate for peace. Tommy was the son of Ruth (née Remick), a homemaker; and Major Thomas B. Smothers, an U.S. army officer who died a POW, of the Japanese, in April 1945.