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|term_start3=1957
|term_start3=1957
|term_end3=1963
|term_end3=1963
|predecessor3=Kilmer B. Corbin
|predecessor3=[[Kilmer Corbin]]
|successor3=H.J. "Doc" Blanchard
|successor3=H.J. "Doc" Blanchard
|office4=Texas State Representative <br>for District 119 (Lubbock)
|office4=Texas State Representative <br>for District 119 (Lubbock)
Smith was born into a tenant farm family of thirteen children in Williamson County near [[Austin]]. The family later moved to Lamesa in Dawson County on the South Plains, at which Smith graduated in 1928 from high school. He thereafter graduated from [[Texas Tech University]] in [[Lubbock]] and launched a theater business in the middle 1940s.
Smith was born into a tenant farm family of thirteen children in Williamson County near [[Austin]]. The family later moved to Lamesa in Dawson County on the South Plains, at which Smith graduated in 1928 from high school. He thereafter graduated from [[Texas Tech University]] in [[Lubbock]] and launched a theater business in the middle 1940s.
After service in the Texas House from 1945 to 1951, Smith served six more years in the state Senate from 1957 to 1963. He won the Senate position by unseating Kilmer B. Corbin, the father of [[actor]] Barry Corbin. In 1962, Smith won the lieutenant governor's race, securing majorities in all but 16 of the 254 counties to defeat the Republican O.W. "Bill" Hayes.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, p. 22.</ref>
After service in the Texas House from 1945 to 1951, Smith served six more years in the state Senate from 1957 to 1963. He won the Senate position by unseating fellow Democrat [[Kilmer Corbin]], the father of [[actor]] Barry Corbin. In 1962, Smith won the lieutenant governor's race, securing majorities in all but 16 of the 254 counties to defeat the Republican O.W. "Bill" Hayes.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, p. 22.</ref>
In 1968, Smith was elected governor to succeed the popular Democratic incumbent [[John Connally|John B. Connally, Jr.]], who in 1973 switched affiliation to the [[Republican Party]]. To win the governorship, Smith first defeated fellow Democrat Don Yarborough in the 1968 Democratic runoff election. Eliminated in the primary that year were [[Dolph Briscoe]], a rancher, businessman, and philanthropist from Uvalde and former Attorney General Waggoner Carr, also of Lubbock, who two years earlier had lost the race for the [[United States Senate]] to Republican [[John Tower]].
In 1968, Smith was elected governor to succeed the popular Democratic incumbent [[John Connally|John B. Connally, Jr.]], who in 1973 switched affiliation to the [[Republican Party]]. To win the governorship, Smith first defeated fellow Democrat Don Yarborough in the 1968 Democratic runoff election. Eliminated in the primary that year were [[Dolph Briscoe]], a rancher, businessman, and philanthropist from Uvalde and former Attorney General Waggoner Carr, also of Lubbock, who two years earlier had lost the race for the [[United States Senate]] to Republican [[John Tower]].