Background
Smith was born in the rural countryside near Nashville, Arkansas, in 1869. She grew up in Arkansas and served as a school teacher in Hope, Arkansas until 1893, when she left Arkansas for New Mexico, and then Arizona.
Smith was born in the rural countryside near Nashville, Arkansas, in 1869. She grew up in Arkansas and served as a school teacher in Hope, Arkansas until 1893, when she left Arkansas for New Mexico, and then Arizona.
She studied at the National Academy of Design in New York, in Philadelphia, and also in California in Oakland (1904), with May Bradford Shockley in San Francisco (1908), in Laguna Beach with Anna Althea Hills (1914) and also at the Stickney School in Pasadena with Jean Mannheim and Richard East. Miller (1916).
Her exhibitions include a show of her Southwest paintings in Corcoran Hall at George Washington University in Washington, District of Columbia beginning May 20, 1931. Smith moved to Prescott, Arizona in 1951, and died there at the Arizona Pioneers" Home in 1955.