Frank E. Smith
Frank Ellis Smith ( born February 21, 1918 in Sidon, Leflore County, Mississippi; † August 2, 1997 in Jackson, Mississippi ) was an American politician and represented the state of Mississippi as a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Career
Frank Ellis Smith was born on 21 February 1918 in Sidon, Leflore County, Mississippi. He attended the public schools of Sidon and Greenwood, Mississippi. After he graduated in 1936 at the Sunflower Junior College in Moorhead, Mississippi and 1941 at the University of Mississippi.
During the Second World War he enlisted as a private on February 9, 1942 in the United States Army. Then he graduated from the Field Artillery Officers Candidate School. Thereafter, he served in Europe with the rank of captain in the 243rd Artillery Battalion, 3rd Army. On February 13, 1946, he was dismissed in the rank of major in the field artillery in reserve.
After he was discharged from the army, he worked as a senior editor of the Greenwood Morningstar 1946-1947. Moreover, he studied in 1946 at the American University in Washington, DC.
Smith was 1947-1949 Assistant to U.S. Senator John Stennis. Subsequently he was a member of the Mississippi Senate from 1948 until 1950. Thereafter, he was elected as a Democrat in the eighty-second and the five subsequent Congresses. His term came from 3 January 1951 until his resignation on 14 November 1962. He stood as a candidate in 1962 for the eighty-eighth Congress, but failed.
In his tenure in Congress, he participated at the 1956 Constitution of the Southern Manifesto, which spoke out against racial integration in public institutions.
Smith was on 14 November 1962 to May 18, 1972 Member of the Supervisory Board of the Tennessee Valley Authority. He then worked as Director of Illinois State, institution of higher learning in 1973 and 1974. Afterwards he worked as a visiting professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute between 1977 and 1979. He also served as Special Assistant to Mississippi Governor William Winter between 1980 and 1983. After he was elected in 1984 as a Life Fellow in the Southern Regional Council.
Frank Ellis Smith died on August 2, 1997 in Jackson, Mississippi.