Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Irish Catholic parents from Ballyduff, County Kerry, Charlotte Hennessey supported herself as a seamstress.

In 1898, John Charles Smith died from a blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with the Niagara Steamship Lines.

[3] Smith took a role in United Artists and the Mary Pickford Film Company, founded by her daughter, until her death.

[4][page needed] On March 22, 1928, Smith died of breast cancer after refusing additional surgery.

[6] She left the large bulk of her estate to her eldest daughter Mary of $1 million (approximately $17 million in 2023 dollars),[5] and she acknowledged the reasons in her will: "Whatever property I possess at the time of my death has come to me through my association with my beloved daughter in her business and through her most unusual generosity to me.