Lillian Smith

Lillian Smith may refer to:

Lillian Smith (author)

Lillian Eugenia Smith (December 12, 1897 – September 28, 1966) was a writer and social critic of the Southern United States, known best for her best-selling novel Strange Fruit (1944). A white woman who openly embraced controversial positions on matters of race and gender equality, she was a southern liberal unafraid to criticize segregation and work toward the dismantling of Jim Crow laws, at a time when such actions almost guaranteed social ostracism.

Life and career

Smith was born on December 12, 1897, to a prominent family in Jasper, Florida, the seventh of nine children. Her life as the daughter of a middle-class civic and business leader took an abrupt turn in 1915 when her father lost his turpentine mills. The family was not without resources, however, and decided to relocate to their summer residence in the mountains of Clayton, Georgia, where her father had previously purchased property and operated the Laurel Falls Camp for Girls.

Now a young adult financially on her own, she was free to pursue her love of music and teaching for the next five years. She spent a year studying at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia (1915–1916). She also had two stints at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore in 1917 and 1919. She returned home and helped her parents manage a hotel and taught in two mountain schools before accepting a position to be director of music at a Methodist school for girls in Huzhou, (now Wuxing, Zhejiang), China. She was not a churchgoer and did not consider herself religious.

Lillian Smith (trick shooter)

Lillian Frances Smith (February 3, 1871 – February 3, 1930) was a young trick shooter and trick rider who joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1886, at the age of fifteen. She was billed as "the champion California huntress," and was a direct rival to Annie Oakley in the show.

Biography

Lillian Frances Smith was born in 1871 in Coleville, California to Levi Woodbury Smith, Jr. and Rebecca T. Robinson, the third of four children. Her parents were originally from Massachusetts and moved to Coleville in 1867. Smith began shooting at the age of 7 and was already competing by the age of 10. In 1886, at the age of 15, she joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, where she met her rival, Annie Oakley. Apparently, Smith and Oakley were never on very friendly terms; Smith was a braggart and at one point declared "Annie Oakley was done for." Moreover, in contrast to Annie, who was an extremely conservative dresser, Lillian enjoyed flashy clothing and had a reputation as a "shameless flirt." Both Smith and Oakley traveled to Great Britain with the Wild West Show and met Queen Victoria in 1887. Smith's poor performance at the annual Wimbledon rifle competition (as opposed to Oakley's favorable performance) brought mocking coverage by both the British and American press. A friend of Smith attempted to reverse the roles of Smith and Oakley in his recounting of the competition (and London's reception), but the claims received public responses by reputable sources. Smith left the show in 1889 (when Oakley returned to it).