Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Katherine Abigail Walker Smith, 1881-1971
By Amanda Ritter-Maggio, Associate Professor of English, Texarkana College, Texarkana, TX
Photo Credit: Chicago Tribune 17 April 1927 (Newspapers.com)
Corresponding Secretary, Missouri Equal Suffrage League; member, Clayton Equal Suffrage League
Katherine Abigail Walker was born in Versailles, Missouri on August 26, 1881. Her parents were Robert Franklin Walker, an attorney who eventually became a judge and chief Missouri Supreme Court justice, and Nannie Wright Walker. She had one brother, Leland. Her mother died from consumption at the age of thirty-nine in 1892, and her father later married Geneva Percy.
Katherine married Felix Koerner Smith of Chicago, who worked as an agent with the Santa Fe Railroad, in January of 1905. Felix's father was a Union Brigadier General during the Civil War and served as Illinois state treasurer from 1867-1869. Katherine and Felix lived in Clayton, a suburb of St. Louis, and had a daughter, Katherine, born in 1907, and a son, Robert Franklin Walker, born in 1908.
In January of 1913, Katherine went to the Missouri state capitol along with a Clayton Equal Suffrage Club delegation to lobby for a suffrage amendment to be added to the 1914 Missouri ballot. The next month, she was one of the citizens who spoke before a hearing of the state Joint Committee on Constitutional Amendments. Although the measure was placed on the ballot, it was ultimately defeated. Later in 1914, Katherine was elected corresponding secretary of the Missouri Equal Suffrage League at the organization's state conference. In 1917 she lobbied the State Legislature on behalf of a bill for Presidential suffrage. The bill was passed by the House, but was defeated in the Senate.
In August of 1918, Felix Smith died at the age of forty-one, following complications from an appendectomy. Katherine was left with two young children and Felix's fledgling refrigerator factory, which was struggling in the midst of World War I. According to a newspaper account, "she sold the factory for what she could get. Her situation had made her think in business terms and consider seriously what business ability she had. That ability seemed to lie in selling, although selling the idea that woman suffrage would not destroy the universe to conservative Missouri voters measured the extent of her contact with the public." Katherine decided to move to Evanston, Illinois, home of Northwestern University, and open a ladies' clothing store, a "dainty gray-painted shop bearing in tiny gold letters on the window, 'Katherine Walker Smith.'" Her shop became quite successful, and she operated it until 1948.
Katherine Walker Smith died in Evanston, Illinois on August 19, 1971 and is buried with her husband in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.
Sources:
Ancestry.com. Missouri, U.S., Birth Registers, 1847-1910 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
"Death of Mrs. R.F. Walker." Laclede County Republican [Lebanon, MO] 02 December 1892. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/589002641/?terms=%22mrs.%20r.f.%20walker%22&match=1
"Favorable Suffrage Action." St. Joseph News-Press 07 February 1913. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/559266964/?terms=%22Mrs.%20F.%20K.%20smith%22%20suffrage&match=1
"Felix K. Smith Dead." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 14 August 1918. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/138440077/?terms=%22Felix%20Smith%22&match=1
Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/226135864/felix-koerner-smith : accessed 23 July 2021), memorial page for Felix Koerner Smith (25 Oct 1876-12 Aug 1918), Find a Grave Memorial ID 226135864, citing Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Diane Elsasser Snider (contributor 46512148).
Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/71894333/george-washington-smith : accessed 23 July 2021), memorial page for George Washington Smith (8 Jan 1837-16 Sep 1898), Find a Grave Memorial ID 71894333, citing Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.
Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/223025990/katharine-abigail-smith : accessed 23 July 2021), memorial page for Katharine Abigail Walker Smith (26 Aug 1881-19 Aug 1971), Find a Grave Memorial ID 223025990, citing Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA; Maintained by R. S. Nourse (contributor 48037595).
The History of Woman Suffrage vol. IV. Ed. Ida Husted Harper, et al. New York, 1902 [LINK]
The History of Woman Suffrage vol. VI. Ed. Ida Husted Harper, et al. 1922. [LINK]
Miller, Laura. "Mary Succeeds on Main Street." Greenville Sun [Greenville, MO] 03 July 1924. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/589467335/?terms=%22katherine%20smith%22%20suffrage&match=1
"Supreme Court Judge Died in Jefferson City." The Sedalia Democrat 20 November 1920. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/68397283/
"Walker-Smith Wedding." The St. Louis Republic 27 January 1905. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/78398285/?article=18ddbb02-17ba-4b55-a171-e302d11cd464&focus=0.6942301,0.15132248,0.8276895,0.23153491&xid=3398&_ga=2.251073871.87767099.1626896222-277744048.1622824811
"Women Lobbyists to Work for Bill at Legislature." The St. Louis Star and Times 12 January 1913. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/205353713/?terms=%22Mrs.%20F.%20K.%20smith%22%20suffrage&match=1
"Women Used the Steam Roller: The Republican Invention Worked Well at Suffrage Convention." The Kansas City Times 05 April 1913. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/653727556/?terms=%22Mrs.%20F.%20K.%20smith%22%20suffrage&match=1