A native of Virginia, Smith trained as a singer at Hollins College, the Juilliard School, the Tanglewood Music Center, and privately under her principal voice teacher Ettore Verna.

In addition to her work as international secretary for L'Abri, she assisted in establishing a music ensemble at the organization with which she toured in public concerts.

[2] Smith was educated in Staunton, Virginia, at Stuart Hall School, and after graduating from there matriculated to Hollins College (HC) where she studied music and was first introduced to opera.

[6] She then pursued further studies in voice at the Juilliard School in New York City,[3][5] and at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts.

[4] Her teachers at Juilliard included Coenraad V. Bos and Charles Panzéra, and at Tanglewood she studied under Boris Goldovsky and Robert Shaw.

[4] He was the husband of soprano Mary Curtis Verna, and operated a highly regarded private voice studio in New York City.

[7] Music critic James Dorsey Callaghan of the Detroit Free Press said in his review that "Miss Smith is a woman of commanding beauty, both of person and voice.

[18] In 1958 she returned to Palermo as Elena (Helen of Troy) in Boito's Mefistofele with Cesare Siepi in the title role, a production which was filmed and broadcast on Italian television on March 4, 1958.

[2] On the advice of a friend,[5] Smith traveled to the headquarters of L'Abri, an evangelical Christian organization in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, in 1956.

[5] Two years after her conversion, Smith had what she considered a near-death experience on a plane flight from Geneva to Paris in which one of the aircraft's twin-engines failed.

Smith stated that, "My prayer during that terrifying time was that if God allowed us to land safely, I would give the rest of my life into His hands.

"[2] After arriving safely on the ground, Smith determined to leave her opera career behind, and forge a new life in Christian ministry working for L'Abri.

[4] She also taught classes on music and theology to visiting college students,[6] and devoted time to scholarship on hymn writing.

[4][5] In addition to being colleagues, Smith and Carlson were longtime friends who lived together at Chalet Chesalet on L'Abri's Swiss property.

In 2012 she was honored by that opera company and the History Museum of Western Virginia, an institution which has since installed a permanent exhibit about Smith.