R. Earle Smith, M. D. Among the enterprising citizens of the younger generation in Gracemont, Oklahoma, R. Earle Smith figures prominently as a successful physician and surgeon. He has been engaged in the active practice of his profession in this city for the past two years and during that period has acquired a large and lucrative patronage here and in the adjacent countryside.

The Smith family originated in England and representatives of the name came to America and settled in New York in the early colonial days. The first born in a family of seven children, Doctor Smith is a native of Gorman, Texas, where his birth occurred, May 3, 1887. He is a son of C. C. and Addie (Maun) Smith, the former of whom was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1856, and the latter of whom is a native of Norton, Kansas, where she was born in 1857. The father was reared and educated in Alabama and was a pioneer settler in the vicinity of Gorman, Texas, in 1871. He was married in the latter place and was actively engaged in farming and stock raising there until his retirement from business. To him and his wife were born the following children: Doctor Smith is the subject of this sketch; Marion is county superintendent of schools for Eastland County, Texas; Low is a successful and popular teacher in the schools of Eastland County; Vera is a sophomore in the University of Texas; Charles is a sophomore in the Denton Normal College; Iola is a junior in the Gorman High School; and May is a pupil in the public school of Gorman.

After a thorough preliminary education in the public and high schools of Gorman, Texas, Doctor Smith attended Hankins Normal College, in Eastland County, Texas, graduating in the class of 1906. He then entered the University of California, in which he completed the course in 1909 and in the following year he was matriculated as a student in the University of Oklahoma, in which excellent institution he was graduated in 1913, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Doctor Smith began his professional work in Gracemont, this state, and his splendid success here indicates a thorough preparedness for his life work. His offices are in the Gracemont Drug Building, on Main Street. In politics he is enrolled as a democrat, and in a fraternal way he affiliates with Gracemont Lodge No. 344, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; and with Gracemont Camp, Woodmen of the World. Doctor Smith is essentially progressive in his professional work and as a citizen he gives his ardent support to all measures and enterprises tending to promote the public welfare.

In 1910, in Norman, Oklahoma, occurred the marriage of Doctor Smith to Miss Effie Brisbin, a daughter of Mrs. Flora Brisbin, of Norman. Doctor and Mrs. Smith are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Gracemont, in which he serves on the official board. They are both popular in the social life of Gracemont and are held in high esteem by their fellow citizens.