Before her premature death in 1884, Fannie Washington aided her husband in the early development of the Tuskegee Institute.
In addition to a daily three-mile walk to and from the school, Smith was also acting as a primary caregiver for her mother.
[1] After Smith's graduation from the Hampton Institute in 1882, she and Booker T. Washington were married in Rice's Zion Baptist Church in the Tinkersville section of Malden on August 2 of that year.
[1] The new couple moved to Tuskegee, Alabama, where Washington had accepted the position of principal of a new school for black children the year before.
[1] The Washingtons rented a large home, and soon invited four other faculty members of the Tuskegee Institute to board with them.
[2] She also immediately joined the faculty of the fledgling Tuskegee Institute, and is credited for broadening the curriculum for female students and developing the school's home economics program.