Mississippi-St Francis-Cleburne County ArArchives Biographies.....Smith, Robert Lee 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 August 3, 2009, 6:05 pm

Source: See Full Citation Below Biography
Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

ROBERT LEE SMITH.
    Robert Lee Smith, superintendent of the public schools of Leachville since
June, 1920, was born May, 28, 1893, in Cleburne county, Arkansas, near Heber
Springs. His father, Newton Alexander Smith, now deceased, was a farmer of
Cleburne county who was born and reared, however, in Mississippi, whence he came
to Arkansas in young manhood, arriving in 1875, at the age of twenty years. He
married Frances Mitchell, who was born and reared in Faulkner county, Arkansas,
near Conway, her parents having been among the pioneer settlers of that county.
The marriage was celebrated near Conway, August 10, 1876. and they became the
parents of nine children, six sons and three daughters. All are living with the
exception of one of the daughters.

    Robert Lee Smith, who was the seventh in order of birth, began his education
in the rural schools of Cleburne county, Arkansas, and afterward attended the
Quitman high school and the Arkansas State Teachers' College. He also did summer
work at the University of Arkansas and took up the teaching profession in 1911
at Oakgrove, this state. During the succeeding six years he taught in rural and
high schools of Faulkner county and in 1917 became first assistant principal and
athletic coach of the Quitman high school, serving for one year. On the 14th of
July, 1918, he entered the service of the government in connection with the
World war, occupying a clerkship in the camp personnel office of the Motor
Transport Division at Camp Holabird, Baltimore, Maryland. He joined the army at
New Orleans and went from there to Atlanta, Georgia, and afterward to Maryland,
remaining in the service until March 8, 1919.

    Mr. Smith then returned to Arkansas and in June, 1919, was elected
superintendent of the high school at Palestine, St. Francis county, Arkansas,
where he remained for a year. He came to Leachville in 1920 as superintendent of
schools and is still serving in this position, being at the head of the
Agricultural high school, which is a consolidated rural high school, having a
modern building and splendid equipment. The attendance at the school under his
direction has increased twenty-five per cent. He has introduced many
improvements and progressive methods and is making the school thoroughly modern
in every particular. He belongs to the Arkansas State Teachers Association and
the Mississippi County Teachers Association, and served as president in 1916 of
the Faulkner County Contest Association, which was organized in Faulkner county,
being the youngest incumbent in that position. Mr. Smith is now engaged in
securing a higher education at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana.

    On the 9th of August, 1919, Mr. Smith was united in marriage at Quitman,
Arkansas, to Miss Elva DeJarnatt of that place. Their religious faith is
indicated by their membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South. They are
prominent in the social circles of the city in which they live, the hospitality
of the best homes being freely and cordially extended to them. In his
professional career Professor Smith has made steady progress, actuated by a
laudable ambition and high ideals, and the various schools under his control
have made substantial advancement.



Additional Comments:

Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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