Edith (Edie) Smith

Edie Smith knew she wanted to be a teacher since the fifth grade when her love for her elementary school teachers spilled over to after school when she

and her three sisters played "school" in the back yard with a tin siding to an old

garage serving as a blackboard. By the end of the 1960s, all four sisters were

teachers, having graduated from Troy State College.

Edie grew up in Panama City, Florida, graduating from Bay County High School in 1958. She graduated in three years from Troy State College in 1961 with a BS degree in English/Journalism. While in high school, Edie attended Girl's State, edited her high school newspaper, won the DAR award, and was chosen for Bay High's Hall of Fame. While at Troy, Edie served as editor of the college newspaper for two years, served in student government on the student Judicial Committee, and was selected for Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities. She began her first year of teaching at age 20 at King High School in Tampa, Florida. She also began her marriage to Larry Smith that year, a marriage that hit 61 years this summer.

Edie began teaching English at Riverview in 1978. Feeling a need for a girl's service club at Riverview, she reignited Tri Hi Y and remained its sponsor while at the school. Tri Hi Y competed locally for the prestigious Golden Gavel Award for Outstanding Community Service and won the coveted award for the Youth Division for six years running. She also sponsored Junior Board, which was responsible for the Junior-Senior Prom, and coached the school's award-winning Academic Olympics team. One of the events in which Tri Hi Y participated was the YMCA's Youth In Government program held each year for a week in Tallahassee. There her girls wrote, debated, and passed laws in a mock government, some of the laws actually being passed in the future by Florida's actual Legislature.

In 1985 Edie was selected by the RHS staff to represent Riverview for Teacher of the Year. She was one of the state's five finalists that year and went on to become

Florida's 1985 Teacher of the Year. That award gave Edie entrance into venues where she could push an education agenda. She served four years as a member of the National Council of Teachers, working with state governors Tom Keane of New Jersey, Bill Clinton of Arkansas, and Bob Graham of Florida. She lobbied (and won) a motion that the annual $25,000 Christa McAuliffe Scholarship go to future Teachers of the Year to serve state- wide as Education Ambassadors. Edie was also one of the two Florida finalists for Teacher in Space.

Edie's outside activities include being a member of The Delta Kappa Gamma International Society for Key Women Educators. She served as her local chapter president for two terms from 1982 to 1986, and as Florida's president of the Society from 1993-1995. She also served on the International Executive Board during that time. Edie is currently on the Auxiliary Executive Board of SPARCC (Safe Place And Rape Crisis Center), a group that provides shelter as well as legal and emotional help to women of sexual and domestic violence.

Edie is a mother of two children, a grandmother to five grandchildren, and a great-grandmother to one great-grandchild. She continues to stay in touch with

her former Riverview students and colleaques through social media. They arenever very far from her mind.