This partially edited oral history sound recording is an interview with Charlie Smith, a former slave and cowboy actor, made for a USDA radio program. At the time of the interview, Smith was 119 years of age and purportedly the oldest living person in the United States. Smith indicates that he was 12 years old when he was put on a slave ship from Liberia to U.S.  He says he was bought at an auction in New Orleans by Charles Smith, a wealthy Texas rancher, who gave him his name (Smith states his real name was Mitchell Watkins).  Smith lived and worked as one of the family on the Smith Ranch in Texas near Galveston and Red River.  The King Ranch of Texas is on the land that was once the Smith Ranch.Smith, 21 years old when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, went to Hollywood with Charles Smith's son, John.  There he appeared as the cowboy, "The Trigger Kid" in Western films. Smith discusses obtaining his Social Security card at the age of 113; marrying three times; and his views on money, lifestyles, religion, work, and his formula for a long life.