Smith was born in Paris, Texas, in 1898, and moved to Toppenish, Washington, in 1910 to live with her father.
[1] She married Elwood Smith on July 5, 1917 in Spokane, Washington, and they moved to Portland a few weeks later.
When Marie Smith and her husband moved from their southeast Woodstock home to a white neighborhood in northeast Portland, they faced housing discrimination from their neighbors who signed a petition requesting them to leave.
Elwood Smith was a Pullman porter, earning $60 a month, which allowed Marie to be politically active.
[5] She was the first woman to receive a Metropolitan Human Relations Commission Russell Peyton Award and was named Portland's First Negro Citizen of the Year in 1950.