Esther Mae Smith was born on February 3, 1917, in Thomasville, Georgia, and died in Atlanta on February 13, 2005. After attending Fort Valley State College, she married and gave birth to her first child Eleanor. Esther then migrated to Atlanta in 1939. She was the proprietress of Smith's Music and Appliance Company, a landmark Auburn Avenue business. Esther was also a past president of the Delta Chapter of the Iota Phi Lambda Sorority. She served as Metro Atlanta/Fulton County Heart Association's CEO for twenty-two years. Esther taught at Hamilton High School and served on the board of Directors, where Esther promoted the passage of the referendum to build the downtown library. She was a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church. As a global missionary, she served until she died as Southeastern Director of Foreign Missions for the Progressive National Baptist Convention and founded the New Era Baptist Convention of Georgia. (Taken from Obituary)