Annapolis gathers to pay tribute to an icon
‘Walking Man’ cleaned up community for decades
Beneath a vibrant mural of an Annapolis icon, elected officials stood alongside business owners, pastors, and others from across the city. Some came dressed in velvet or fur coats, others in tracksuits, and children in brightly colored puffy coats.
A yellow Labrador donned a red bandana and a one-eyed Chihuahua paced quietly at its owner’s feet as the community paid tribute to Annapolis’ “Walking Man,” Carlester Smith, who died Monday at 63.
“He was who he was and he will always be,” said his niece, Janell Johnson. “Up until he took his final breath, he had a smile on his face.”
With music and stories and mini Hershey chocolate bars — “Uncle Lessie’s” favorite — his community held him up just a mile from Lee Street, where he grew up.
Rev. Kevin Graves of the Sharon Baptist Church in Washington D.C. said they were neighbors on that street, and from the time they were children, Smith taught Annapolis how to love and care for one another.
“Of course he has had his own way of doing things and we all have our own way of doing things, but he desired to please other folks, other people,” Graves said. He is “a man of greatness and he is a man of honor.”
As Smith’s family and friends shared memories, community members milled around a table full of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, and dodged cars honking for access through the outdoor ceremony. Most stood on the sidewalks and in the adjacent parking lot, and others came prepared with camping chairs. Some used sidewalk chalk to write messages beneath the mural and others added to the collection of colorful
bouquets.
Smith is known for walking the West Street corridor with black garbage bags tucked into his pants, picking up litter.
He wasn’t known for chatting with his fellow Annapolitans, but he smiled and waved and sometimes yelled at cars. He was unable to keep up his routine in the last few years of his life after he suffered a few falls, and instead lived out his days in Glen Burnie in the immediate care of his sister Rosemary Graves.
After decades of walking, cleaning up parking lots and washing windows, he was beloved by the city. He earned a citation from Gov. Larry Hogan last summer, and the City of Annapolis named March 6 to be Carlester Smith Day in his honor.
He’s been featured in local history books and in Capital articles for years. He inspired singer Harrison Cofer, now based in Nashville, to write a song about his walking.
Bracing the cold to author Smith’s legacy, Annapolis’ Del. Shaneka Henson encouraged residents to use the moment to consider what their own legacy will be.
“Carlester was a humble man who lived a humble life… And it’s just a testament to who we are when we are our better selves here in Annapolis, you don’t have to be an elected official, or be a public person to be a person that people can celebrate and find value in your leadership,” Henson said. “The way that Carlester took it upon himself to find his own place in the city, his own responsibility, his own contribution that he could make is something that each of us can learn from.”
Everything he did, Henson said, was selfless and gracious and to give back to the city.
“So as we drive by this mural, as we look at the kind eyes that he had, as we look at the joy that was reflected in his face, we can all use it as a barometer to measure our own public service,” Henson said. “Are we doing it with as much joy as Carlester did? Are we doing it from a place that’s as selfless as Carlester did? He can forever be a reflection for us of what we strive to be when we are being the best that we can be in the city of Annapolis.”
Anne Arundel County Auditor Susan Smith will retire effective April 1, about a month before the introduction of the Fiscal Year 2022 budget.
Smith has been auditor since Jan. 2019, shortly after the current county council took office.
She was appointed to the role temporarily following the retirement of former auditor Phyllis Clancy, promoted from the assistant county auditor. She was eventually appointed to the role indefinitely.
Anne Arundel County Council Chair Sarah Lacey, D-Jessup, said the council has selected a replacement and will formalize the appointment with a resolution she plans to introduce at the March 15 meeting.
She declined to give details about the prospective hire because negotiations are ongoing.
Smith said she knew taking the job that she was only a few years away from retirement but couldn’t turn down the professional opportunity. She hired mostly new staff, trained them and generally made over the department.
Smith was the fourth auditor to hold the position since 2016 when then auditor Teresa Sutherland left to join Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley’s administration.
She said the timing of her departure will allow the new county auditor to get acquainted before the budget is introduced. The auditor’s office is responsible for reviewing the budget and proposing amendments in May.
Smith enjoyed the work, she said. But, “you can only work 10 hour days for six, seven days a week for so long.”
She said she thinks she did enough training and reorganizing the department will be easier for the next auditor.
Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said he was grateful to Smith for working with the administration to restore trust that was previously lost between previous auditors and administrations.
The county auditor is under the County
Council’s purview, and the position has clashed with previous county executive administrations.
“A strong County Auditor’s Office is essential to government accountability, and she has left it stronger than when she began,” Pittman said in a statement. “We look forward to working with her successor and the County Council to continue that progress.”
Lacey said the process the council went through hiring Smith and working with her for the first half of their term helped them go through a new search process.
“These past two years, Susan has provided great service to the council and to the county, and we learned a lot to be able to hire select and hire a new county auditor,” Lacey said. “In some ways, it feels like, oh, we can take off the training wheels now.”
She will join her husband in retirement, and the April 1 retirement date will allow her to attend her daughter’s spring college graduation, if it takes place in person. Her last county council meeting will be on March 15, and her last day with the county will be March 31.