Samantha Reed Smith: "Slumber Party" episode

[RKORadio]

I just want to remember a girl who wrote a letter to an "Evil Empire" and made a journey for peace and who would have gone far in television had not tragedy intervened.

Remembering Samantha Reed Smith, the girl who went to the Soviet Union and Elizabeth on Robert Wagner's "Lime Street".

She's pretty in this Lime Street screenshot although the '80s updo hairstyle on a girl and the shoulder pads hasn't proved timeless. My niece asks "how could she turn her torso in that thing?"

[TMC]

Samantha Reed Smith you could say, was sort of the '80s, Cold War version of Greta Thunberg for those who may not recognize or remember the former's name.

Incidentally, a pre-Married...with Children Christina Applegate was also in that particular episode of Charles in Charge.

[paul.austin]

For those who want to imagine that alt-universe where a Samantha that is about to turn fifty in two months is working closely with Thunberg the reality is that a living Samantha would be the cause of so many historical butterflies after 1985 that Greta would either not have been born or she would have been born as someone else.

[paul.austin]

[paul.austin]

[paul.austin]

[biffbronson]

May Her Memory Be Eternal

[paul.austin]

This has to be the least flattering picture ever of the pretty young lady that was Samantha Smith:

[TMC]

Originally Posted by paul.austin

For those who want to imagine that alt-universe where a Samantha that is about to turn fifty in two months is working closely with Thunberg the reality is that a living Samantha would be the cause of so many historical butterflies after 1985 that Greta would either not have been born or she would have been born as someone else.

This is some extremely surreal trivia, but Robert John Bardo, the man who was stalking and eventually murdered Rebecca Schaeffer, apparently first had his sights set on Samantha Reed Smith. After Samantha tragically perished in a plane crash, Bardo began pursuing Rebecca.

[paul.austin]

Originally Posted by TMC

This is some extremely surreal trivia, but Robert John Bardo, the man who was stalking and eventually murdered Rebecca Schaeffer, apparently first had his sights set on Samantha Reed Smith. After Samantha tragically perished in a plane crash, Bardo began pursuing Rebecca.

Yes, the consensus of the history geeks and such over at alternatehistory.com is that had the plane not crashed, Bardo would be a serious threat to Samantha.

And, Sam was younger than Bardo (Schaffer was older) so he seems to have had more in mind to do - and make Sam do - than just killing her. Think those male serial killers in the 70s and 80s that forced the girls and women to do well, erotic photos and footage in bought wear... as in intimate ladies' bedroom wear.

Dying in a plane crash may have been best considering what Bardo was planning to do to her before ending her life.

[biffbronson]

May Samantha Rest in Peace

[RKORadio]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

May Samantha Rest in Peace

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Samantha and her father Arthur are buried in Estabrook Cemetary in Amity, Maine, where she spent her early life. As with 1990s-2000s era Australian cricketer Shane Warne being buried in an obscure cemetery on the Mornington Peninsula, it's to give the two some privacy in their eternal rest.