Fannie Douglass Smith

After leaving school Fannie Douglass Smith devoted her attention for some time to music, taking a course of vocal instruction in the College of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. She reportedly had a fine soprano voice and was a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church choir of Hamilton. She had a local reputation as a singer, and her vocal gifts gave great promise for her future success in that line. ^[1]

She held the routine of society reporter on the Hamilton Daily Democrat, where she gained considerable reputation. ^[1]

She was a member of the Unity Club, the leading literary club of Hamilton, and she frequently contributed to the musical as well as the literary parts of its programs. ^[1]

On December 19, 1894, Fannie Douglass Smith married Walter Lawrence Tobey (1870-1938), the owner of the Distinctive Newspaper Features, in Hamilton, Ohio, where Smith had a weekly, 3-column, self-contained "nursery quilt pattern" (as defined by the annual Syndicate Directory supplement published by Editor & Publisher, August 30, 1930) feature distributed from 1929 to 1934. ^[2]

She died on November 4, 1947, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is buried at Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, Butler County, Ohio.