Griffin Smith

Griffin Smith (July 13, 1885 – April 29, 1955) was chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1937 until his death in 1955. Early life, education, and career Born in the small town of Laurel Hill in Smith County, Tennessee, Smith attended a public school for one year, but was primarily taught at home by his parents, who were well-educated. Smith began working in his teens, and while employed at the Tennessee state textbook depository in Cookeville at the age of 17, contracted tuberculosis, which required two years to recover. Smith moved to Arkansas in 1911. Smith entered the newspaper business, becoming "editor, part owner, and eventually full owner of the Paragould Daily Press and weekly Paragould Soliphone". During World War I, Smith "reported from France to those papers, the Arkansas Gazette, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and the United Press". Smith remained in the newspaper business for ten years before he "decided to pursue a career in law". Smith received his law degree from Cumberland University. He then "opened a law practice in Marianna, Arkansas, in 1926". Political and legal career In 1932, Smith "handled the publicity" for the successful gubernatorial campaign of Junius Marion Futrell, after which Governor Futrell appointed Smith Comptroller of Arkansas.