Introduction

Biography

Frank was the son of John Tho­mas Smith and Mary Sid­ney Brown, and hus­band of Al­pha Inez Saun­ders.

He beg­an stu­dy­ing mu­sic in 1895 un­der John W. Dennis, with whom he con­tin­ued un­til re­ceiv­ing his di­plo­ma in 1903. He be­gan teach­ing with Den­nis in 1901, and ev­en­tu­al­ly taught 27 pri­ma­ry schools and three nor­mals in In­di­an Ter­ri­to­ry, Ok­la­ho­ma and Tex­as, hav­ing about a thou­sand to­tal pu­pils.

He at­tend­ed his first two ses­sions of the South­ern Nor­mal Mu­sic­al In­sti­tute in 1901, and re­ceived his di­plo­ma in De­cem­ber 1903.

His first pub­lished com­po­si­tion ap­peared in Sing­ing for Joy, ed­it­ed by An­tho­ny J. Sho­wal­ter and John. D. Pat­ton (Dal­ton, Geor­gia: A. J. Sho­wal­ter, 1902).

Copyright re­cords show him in Nor­man, Ok­la­ho­ma, in 1908, and in Oak­land, Ca­li­for­nia, by 1914.