Jewell Ellen Smith

BY NANCY DORNSIFE

For someone who thinks women’s lib is a lot of hogwash, Jewell Ellen Smith has to be one of the South’s most liberated women, as well as one of its most creative. In her lifetime she has successfully managed a career, a family, and the Army.

At Ft. Rucker she is most well-known for her HEDGEHOPPER column, SUNBONNET SOLILOQUY, and the annual play or musical presented at the Good Friday Prayer Breakfast sponsored by the Protestant Women of the Chapel. This month her first novel, GREAT JEHOSHAPHAT AND GULLY DIRT!, will be released by John F. Blair, Publisher.

Jewell began her prolific career in writing when she pursued a journalism degree from Louisiana State University. Since then, she has worked for newspapers, raised a family and served proudly as an Army wife.

When her husband, Lt. Col. (ret.) William H. Smith, retired and took a job on the editorial staff of Aviation Digest at Ft. Rucker, Jewell began a whole new career in writing fiction and in serving the military community as a “retired” Army wife.

Of her column, SUNBONNET SOLILOQUY, which first appeared in a local newspaper, Jewell says, “It’s sort of an advice column. I try to give younger wives the benefit of my trials and errors. I hope it’s helpful. I try to keep it light, not preachy, and give advice on children, husbands, how to adjust and how to like the military. It definitely takes a special kind of woman to like the military and to be happy.”

The Good Friday Breakfast plays, for which she writes the music and lyrics as well as the dialogue, have become something of a Ft. Rucker tradition and may become an Army tradition. So successful have the plays been that TRADDOC has published a manual for Army-wide use entitled, “How to Present a Good Friday Prayer Breakfast’’.

The manual, which Jewell wrote and edited, also includes eight of the plays and musicals. Jewell said she can’t take credit for the idea behind the first breakfast theatrical, but admits she was the moving force in making it a reality. Basing the plays on medieval miracle plays, which combined Bible stories and moral teachings, she expanded the production to a musical using hymns about five years ago and then began writing her own music and lyrics.

“I needed a song about the Devil, and you just can’t find any hymns with the Devil in them so I wrote what I wanted.” She added she is very careful to keep any denominational doctrine out of the plays. The occasion is one for worship and praise, not sermons.

Although she considers the plays more significant than any historical novel she might write, the publication of a first novel is a highlight in any writer’s career and Jewell is no different. Six years in the writing and four years in the publishing process, her first novel represents a big investment of time and creativity.

For bait, she says she has made the book a murder mystery, but the real heart of the book is the colloquial expressions and customs of her childhood in rural southern Arkansas, which she has tried to record and preserve. She hopes the book will be available at the Book Store at Ft. Rucker as well as in the Enterprise bookstores.

Jewell’s talents have benefited Enterprise and Coffee County as well as Ft. Rucker. This coming year, in conjunction with the Bicentennial, the Enterprise Bicentennial Commission will present an historical and patriotic pageant emphasizing the growth and development of Enterprise. Written by Jewell, the play promises to be entertaining and a memorable July 4, 1976, event. Jewell added she was careful to include Ft. Rucker’s role in the town’s growth, so the play should be of personal interest to Ft. Rucker families as well.

Jewell also helped organize and served as first president of the Coffee County Arts Alliance, which aims to help county residents enjoy the arts through scheduled tours and exhibitions in the Wiregrass area. The Alliance is especially interested in providing school children with the chance to enjoy the arts.

Her interest in the arts has also involved her in an Enterprise study group, the Chautauqua Club. Jewell said in the late 1800’s the organization originally helped bring culture to remoter areas of America before radio and automobiles outmoded the traveling tent shows of musicians, actors, singers, and other artists. She considers it an honor to be a member of a group so long affiliated with the arts.

She is also an honorary member of Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional society for women educators and has been nominated for the second year for Enterprise’s Woman of the Year award. She also gives talks and lectures to women’s clubs and church groups all over the Wiregrass area.

Her latest project, and the subject of her column in next month’s HEDGEHOPPER, is a tribute to the Army wife. Jewell considers herself fortunate to have been a Army wife. She professes to be against women’s lib, but she still has a strong sense of the contribution women have made to the growth of’ America, and she would like to see a monument to the Army wife in tribute to her special role in our nation.

The Army wife couldn’t have a better supporter. With understanding for the unique role women hold in society, Jewell says she advocates the position taken by the American Association of University Women of which she is a member, “I believe in women going forward through higher education.”

“I’m against women’s lib, cake mixes and pants suits,” says Jewell firmly, but it would be harder to find a more liberated woman. She does her own thing quietly and uniquely to the credit of all women.

Published November 1975.

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