Legislator Details
Portrait captured from Find-a-Grave.com, 3/7/2026
Vital Records Information:
Marital Information:
married Hilda Eberhardt, dau. of John Eberhardt, 4/6/1903, in Detroit; divorced 5/6/1911; children: John Paul Marie (Faust); married Marie General [or Jednoralski], 5/13/1911 in Windsor, Essex Co., ON, Canada; children: Dorothy
total children: 2
Number of Children: 2
Background
Education:
public schools of Detroit; attended Detroit College of Law
Biographical Sketch:
Son of John W. Gertrude (Wachs or Wax) Smith. He was youngest of 7; his father died when John jr., was 5. Childhood jobs included selling newspapers, setting pins in a bowling alley. He was known as Kid Smith when he began to box. While studying at the Detroit College of Law, he also apprenticed as a steamfitter. He was president of a union at the time of a strike at Ford and was subsequently blacklisted. He has served as deputy U. S. marshal , deputy commissioner of labor , deputy sheriff and deputy county clerk of Wayne county, and later, engaged in the real estate and building business. He served in the Spanish-American war in the 32nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and Philippine insurrection, with 38th U.S. Infantry. He was postmaster at Detroit, MI, 1922-24; mayor of Detroit, 1924-28, 1933.
Notable Facts:
He was deafened by an explosion in the Philippines in 1901. Over time, he regained hearing in 1 ear. Died, from tuberculosis and diabetes, in the Detroit Tuberculosis Sanitorium. Detroit Free Press article [6/18/1942] has extensive coverage of his political career.