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After high school, Smith attended the University of Louisiana [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], as it was later named, for a semester and worked part-time in a clothing factory. In December 1950, Long enlisted in the [[United States Air Force]] and served for eight months at Maxwell Air Force Base in [[Montgomery]], [[Alabama]].<ref name=statement>Statement of Floyd W. Smith Jr., March 2007.</ref><ref>Floyd Smith told an interviewer in 2007 that he was in the United States Air Force for eight months during 1951; however, his obituary says that he was a veteran of the [[United States Army]].</ref> Thereafter, he was employed by the large Central Louisiana Electric Company. From 1962 to 1966, he was chairman of the Pineville Municipal Democratic Executive Committee. He was elected mayor in 1966, having unseated the incumbent Perry Elmo Futrell Jr.,<ref name=ssdi/> by 121 votes. In 1964, in his third year as mayor, Futrell had been named "Mayor of the Year" by the Louisiana Municipal Association.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/89115329/|title=Four from Area Get LMA Honors|publisher='The Monroe News-Star''|date=March 23, 1964|page=5|accessdate=July 5, 2015}}</ref>

After high school, Smith attended the University of Louisiana [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], as it was later named, for a semester and worked part-time in a clothing factory. In December 1950, Long enlisted in the [[United States Air Force]] and served for eight months at Maxwell Air Force Base in [[Montgomery]], [[Alabama]].<ref name=statement>Statement of Floyd W. Smith Jr., March 2007.</ref><ref>Floyd Smith told an interviewer in 2007 that he was in the United States Air Force for eight months during 1951; however, his obituary says that he was a veteran of the [[United States Army]].</ref> Thereafter, he was employed by the large Central Louisiana Electric Company. From 1962 to 1966, he was chairman of the Pineville Municipal Democratic Executive Committee. He was elected mayor in 1966, having unseated the incumbent Perry Elmo Futrell Jr.,<ref name=ssdi/> by 121 votes. In 1964, in his third year as mayor, Futrell had been named "Mayor of the Year" by the Louisiana Municipal Association.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/89115329/|title=Four from Area Get LMA Honors|publisher='The Monroe News-Star''|date=March 23, 1964|page=5|accessdate=July 5, 2015}}</ref>

Smith ran successfully for alderman at-large in 1970,<ref name=adtt/> as Frederick Herman Baden, Sr., a [[plumber]] with whom Smith often politically quarreled, began the first of seven consecutive terms as mayor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=thetowntalk&sParam=32326739.story|title=Former Pineville Mayor Fred Baden dies, December 17, 2009|publisher=content.usa.today.net|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> In 1971, Smith left the city council and ran for the Louisiana State Senate against the incumbent Cecil Ray Blair of Lecompte in south Rapides Parish. Arnold Jack Rosenthal, an Alexandria businessman and [[attorney]], also entered the race against Blair. Smith ran sufficiently strong to force Blair into a runoff, and the third-place candidate, Rosenthal, thereafter endorsed Smith. Blair still prevailed by some two thousand votes and then ran without [[Republican Party|Republican]] opposition in the [[general election]] held on February 1, 1972.<ref name=adtt/>

Smith ran successfully for alderman at-large in 1970,<ref name=adtt/> as Frederick Herman Baden, Sr (1934-2009), a [[plumber]] with whom Smith often politically quarreled, began the first of seven consecutive terms as mayor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=thetowntalk&sParam=32326739.story|title=Former Pineville Mayor Fred Baden dies, December 17, 2009|publisher=content.usa.today.net|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> In 1971, Smith left the city council and ran for the Louisiana State Senate against the incumbent Cecil Ray Blair of Lecompte in south Rapides Parish. Arnold Jack Rosenthal, an Alexandria businessman and [[attorney]], also entered the race against Blair. Smith ran sufficiently strong to force Blair into a runoff, and the third-place candidate, Rosenthal, thereafter endorsed Smith. Blair still prevailed by some two thousand votes and then ran without [[Republican Party|Republican]] opposition in the [[general election]] held on February 1, 1972.<ref name=adtt/>

   

   

Thereafter, Smith was named executive assistant to Rosenthal, who was elected as the last finance and utilities commissioner in the city of Alexandria prior to the adoption of a new city charter that established the  mayor-council form of municipal government. Smith remained as the assistant to the commissioner until 1975, when Mayor [[John K. Snyder]] and Streets and Parks Commissioner [[Malcolm Hébert]] dismissed him from the position in a 2–1 vote, which Rosenthal considered to have been invalid and unfair.<ref name=adtt/>

Thereafter, Smith was named executive assistant to Rosenthal, who was elected as the last finance and utilities commissioner in the city of Alexandria prior to the adoption of a new city charter that established the  mayor-council form of municipal government. Smith remained as the assistant to the commissioner until 1975, when Mayor [[John K. Snyder]] and Streets and Parks Commissioner [[Malcolm Hébert]] dismissed him from the position in a 2–1 vote, which Rosenthal considered to have been invalid and unfair.<ref name=adtt/>