The free event is open to the public and starts at 7 p.m. in Tuttle Dining Room in
McBryde Hall on the Winthrop University campus. Smith, mother of Winthrop alum Adam Smith '05, is the author of "The Gatekeeper"
about Missy Lehand, who was Roosevelt's right-hand woman and possible mistress.
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Kathryn Smith, a journalist, author and speaker who specializes in the life and times of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, will share readings of her book on the president's secretary during a Dacus Friends of the Library annual meeting on April 19.
The free event is open to the public and starts at 7 p.m. in Tuttle Dining Room in
McBryde Hall on the Winthrop University campus.
Smith, mother of Winthrop alum Adam Smith '05, is the author of "The Gatekeeper" about Missy Lehand, who was Roosevelt's right-hand woman and possible mistress.
Smith also is the co-author of a fiction mystery caper novel featuring LeHand as an
amateur detective that she likens to "Nancy Drew Meets the New Deal." The novel, first
in a series written with Kelly Durham, is called "Shirley Temple Is Missing."
In between writing books, Smith speaks widely about "The Gatekeeper," Missy LeHand and the Roosevelts. She has given more than 150 presentations in venues
ranging from the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park to libraries, civic
clubs, book clubs and senior communities in 10 states and the District of Columbia.
Often, she impersonates the subject of her books, Missy LeHand, as she will be doing when she speaks at Winthrop, according to Library Dean Mark Herring.
A native of Georgia, Smith grew up in Atlanta and Clemson, South Carolina. She attended
the University of Georgia, where she received a degree in journalism and met her husband,
Leo. The Smiths have been married for almost 40 years and have lived for 30 years
in Anderson, South Carolina.
Smith's career path has included stints with three daily newspapers, management of
a community theater and the leadership of the Cancer Association of Anderson, which
she helped found in 2003. Along the way, she wrote award-winning newspaper editorials
and columns, and plays before landing a national publisher, Simon & Schuster, for her biography of Missy LeHand.
For more information, contact Herring at herringm@winthrop.edu.
