Olive Frances Smithells (née Whitta; 24 October 1920 – 7 June 2007) was a New Zealand dancer and health instructor.
[5] Smithells was a lecturer in health and physical education at Wellington Teachers' College and Dunedin Teachers' College, and later at the University of Otago.
[5] She wrote two books, Fatness, Figures and Fitness (1967)[6] and an exercise guide, Look After Your Back, Streamline Your Front (1970, illustrated by Els Noordhof),[7] and co-authored another, Individual needs in physical education (1974, with Philip Smithells).
[8] Smithells was a member of the Wellington New Dance Group from 1945 and 1948,[9] performing along with her husband Philip Smithells, Rona Bailey, and Edith Sipos.
[13][14] Olive Whitta married English-born physical education professor Philip Ashton Smithells[15] in 1944, five days after his first marriage ended in divorce.