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Mayor Smith is a native of Lake County, and has lived and worked in Eustis since 1962.  She is an active leader of the Eustis community; fascinated by the past, engaged in its present, and working for its future.

She considers it a blessing and an honor to be a sponsor of the Annual Academic Achiever's Awards Banquet since its onset 10 years ago by the Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church. Bay Street Baptist Church honored Mayor Smith last May in appreciation of 40 years of faithful servant ministry as a Sunday School teacher and choir member. On May 10, 2003, she was chosen for the Eustis Hall of Fame at Eustis Middle School.

Mayor Smith graduated from Umatilla High School in 1956, and received a degree from Jones College, in Orlando, and completed studies at North Carolina State, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

In 1962, Mayor Smith and her husband Johnny returned to Eustis where they are joint owners of Lake Mechanical Contractors, Inc., a 59-year old mechanical contracting firm located in downtown Eustis, with a branch office in Gainesville, Florida. As Secretary/Treasurer, she is responsible for the accounting and financial interests of the business. She takes pride in being conservative in the business and in the city's financial budget.

Active in state and local politics, she has served as Mayor in 1994, 1999, and again in 2004 and is currently serving her 15th year (her fourth, 4-year term) on the City Commission. She was appointed in 1991 to the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and was elected in 1997 as its Vice Chairman and served until May 1999. In 2000, Governor Bush appointed her as Gubernatorial Appointee, Lake County, to the Regional Planning Council. She was recently reappointed for a term ending October 1, 2004, and was elected to the Finance Committee.

Mayor Smith has also previously been appointed by the Governor's office to serve on the Community Health Purchasing Alliance and the State Auctioneer Board. The City of Eustis and the Greater Eustis Chamber of Commerce have awarded her their "Outstanding Citizen" award and she was selected as "Outstanding Woman of America". In 1984, she was selected as Eustis Orange Queen.

Mayor Smith is a charter member of the Eustis Historical Museum and Preservation Society, Inc. She is an active member, a past board member, and former president of the Eustis Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of Eustis Main Street, Inc., and past president of Lake Co. Federated Garden Club and the Azalea Garden Club of Eustis. Mayor is a life member of the Bay Street Players Theatre. In 2001, she was accepted as a member of the Women's Club of Eustis.

Mayor Smith's energy and dedication are driven by a higher power. She says, "This huge responsibility entrusted to me by the Eustis citizens to care what happens and to protect their interest and their children's future is driven by my love for God." She encourages people to speak up and to speak honestly. People can make a difference in making Eustis a friendlier city and a better place to live.