Background
She married John Charles Smith, son of English Methodist immigrants.
She married John Charles Smith, son of English Methodist immigrants.
Born in Toronto, Canada to Irish Catholic parents from County Kerry, Charlotte Hennessey supported herself as a seamstress. The couple had three children: Gladys Louise, later actress Mary Pickford, Charlotte, later actress Lottie Pickford, and John Charles, later actor Jack Pickford. Her husband John Charles Smith died in 1898 from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with the Niagara Steamship Lincolnshire.
Charlotte Smith struggled to make a living.
They moved to New York, where Gladys, the oldest landed a role on Broadway. Soon she was able to get some film work, and changed her name to Mary Pickford at the request of a director
Charlotte Hennessey Smith died of breast cancer in 1928 after refusing surgery. She had already had several major operations.
She was buried in the Pickford plot in California.
She bequeathed $200,000 each in trust to her two younger children Jack Pickford and Lottie Pickford and to Lottie"s daughter Gwynne.