James "Brady" Smith, Jr.

James “Brady” Smith Jr. of Brookeville, MD passed peacefully in his cherished home of 40 years on Friday, May 15th with his wife and daughters by his side.

Born to Dr. James Brady Smith Sr. and Katherine “Kitty” Lee Smith of Severna Park, MD, Brady spent his early years crabbing on the Severn River and playing baseball and lacrosse. In high school, he explored his love of music and locals could catch his band, The 7-Up, at The Bayou or The Hayloft in Washington DC. Graduating high school filled with wanderlust, Brady traveled to Europe, Northern Africa, Mexico, and through Central and South America. These years shaped the kid from Maryland into the man, the master storyteller, and the entertainer that was Brady Smith.

An amateur inventor his entire life, Brady combined his love of travel and music with his entrepreneurial spirit to create one of his most notable legacies — the modern tour bus. Your favorite bands of the 70's toured in the luxury that only Brady’s “StarTrans” buses could provide. All the while, he continued to travel the world as the buyer for Mad Hatter Imports, the store he owned with the woman who would later become his wife and the mother of his children, Betsy Smith. If you bought Moroccan lovebeads in the 70s in College Park, you bought them from Brady. 

Brady adored his children and poured all of himself into them.  His most important legacy was creating a home full of music, tons of laughter, fresh vegetables from his garden, and lots of love. If it was going to Orioles Games or just a quick trip to the store, Brady made every outing an adventure. An experience to remember. He was entirely invested in his children's lives. If you were in school with the Smith children in the 80s, one of your classroom parents was Brady.

With the lessons he learned from making tour buses – and the industry connections he made there – he helped to build Washington DC’s 9:30 Club into the Rock and Roll landmark it is today. As the “Master of Merchandising” he handled merch sales for all of the best (and some of the worst) bands nearly every night of the week. If you bought a T-shirt or CD at an I.M.P. show in the 90s, you bought it from Brady.

In retirement, Brady found what would be his final love- Disc Golf. He transformed his backyard into Mad Hatter Disc Golf Club  and took a lot of pride in becoming one of the first “Grand Masters” of the PDGA. If you played Seneca Creek in the 2000s, you played a round with Brady.

Brady Smith spent his golden years playing music, tossing discs, tending to his incredible garden, and spending time with family and loved ones. To know Brady was to love him and to have been changed for the better by it. His legacy is cemented in the countless people he touched with his joy, exuberance, and profound life lessons disguised as corny catchphrases. Brady lives on in our hearts and the many people who love him will share his stories forever.

Legends never die.

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