Susy Smith was born on June 2, 1911, in Washington, D.C. She attended the University of Texas, 1929-1932, 1933-1934, and the University of Arizona, 1932-1933 where she majored in journalism. She was married to M.L. Smith in 1934, they later divorced. While living in Salt Lake City, Utah, she worked as a columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune and as a free-lance writer for the Desert News . In 1955, Smith successfully "contacted" her mother with a Ouija board and henceforth her interest flourished in the field. Gripped by the challenge of ESP and its related areas, she gave up all other endeavors to concentrate her interest in the study of psychic phenomena. She worked at Dr. J. B. Rhine's Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She received numerous grants from the Parapsychology Foundation in New York and Smith also traveled and lectured throughout the United States. Her twenty-nine published books generally fall into two categories: those reporting psychic occurrences and those about herself. She acquired an inspirational philosophy that allowed her to give her audiences and readers conclusions that are especially helpful to those facing the loss of loved relatives and friends. Smith's books documenting psychic events and processes brought a considerable amount of new information to the public. In her earlier writing, Smith showed particular talent for taking the scientific material from the records of psychical research and putting it into an entertaining form that turned documented facts into fascinating reading. Her last three books, however, were of a more philosophical nature, because gradually over the years she became convinced of the possibility of spirit communication and recorded the information she received via this technique. In publicizing her works, she appeared on the "Today Show," Jack Paar's Tonight Show," the "David Susskind Show," "To Tell the Truth," "What's My Line," "Not for Women Only," and numerous radio programs. Seven of her books were translated into foreign languages, and one was put into Braille. She was listed in Who's Who in American Women, Contemporary Authors, Prominent Women in Communications, Two Thousand Women of Achievement, Who's Who In Parapsychology and others. Smith was the founder and first president of the Survival Research Foundation, established in 1971 in Tucson, Arizona. This foundation conducts experiments and subsidizes and assists in the procuring of scientific evidence for conscious survival of the human spirit after death. Over the years, Smith had been a member of the American Association of University Women, The National League of American Pen Women, The Business and Professional Women's Club, The Pilot Club, The American Society for Psychical Research, Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship, The Society for Psychical Research, Association for Research and Enlightenment, Author's Guild, and Chi Omega . Additionally, she was a past president of the 125-member Society of Southwestern Authors . Smith died on February 11, 2001.
From the guide to the Susy Smith Collection, 1966-1990, (Bowling Green State University - Browne Popular Culture Library)
