Alice Mae (Gray) Smith was born in Christian, Jack County, Texas, on May 17, 1872, to James Wilson and Amarintah Clinton “Minnie” (Graves) Gray. The family moved to Nutrioso, Apache County, Arizona Territory, in 1885, traveling in a covered wagon. Census records show that, by 1890, James W. Gray was living in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona Territory. On July 16, 1891, Alice married Louis Dupree Smith in Phoenix.
By 1900, Alice and her family were living in Tortilla Flat in Maricopa County. They had three daughters: Nancy, born July 1893 in Texas, Eula, born in 1895 in Texas and Marcella, born October 1897 in Arizona.
Ten years later, Alice and Louis were living in Alma, Maricopa County, where Louis was a beekeeper, and Alice was listed in the census as having an occupation of hatching chickens. By this time, they had another daughter, Lucilla, who was born in Colorado.
Alice classified herself as a widow and a beekeeper in the apiary industry when the census was taken January 23, 1920, in Fort Lowell, Pima County. Alice had moved and changed occupations by April 1930. She became a poultry farmer living in Tanque Verde, Pima County, Arizona. By 1940, she was still living in Pima County, where she was head of household along with her daughter Lucille E. Perkins and her two granddaughters, Juanita G. Perkins, age 10 born in Texas and Violet A. Perkins age 4, born in Arizona.
Alice lived with her daughter Mrs. Eula Rucker before her death on January 21, 1959, in Phoenix. She was buried in the Mesa Cemetery, in Mesa, Arizona. Her newspaper obituary published in the Mesa Tribune January 22, 1959, said: “She was a longtime member of the First Baptist Church of Mesa, and was also a member of the Arizona Pioneer Association.”
Alice’s mother Amarintha “Minnie” Clinton (Graves) Gray and her sister, Minnie Rebecca (Gray) Shartzer, are also represented in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden.
Donor: Elaine Christensen, 2014
Photo Location: RGC MS-39, Box S, F-Smith, Alice (Gray)
Updated: 4/22/15; D. Sue Kissel
