Drama - Elizabeth (Liz) Reitell '41 Collection

Elizabeth "Liz" Reitell Smith was born on September 11, 1920 in Elmira, New York to Charles and Jane Reitell. Smith graduated from the Lincoln School of Teachers College in New York City in 1937 and graduated from Bennington in 1941 with a bachelor of arts degree. She majored in theater design and minored in dance and drama literature. After graduation, Liz returned to New York City and worked for modern dancer Hanya Holm, designing costumes for her dance group. She married playwright Adolph Green in 1941, the marriage would ultimately end in divorce. Smith spent three years in the Army Air Corps during World War Two, studied art in France and in 1952 met the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, and produced his play "Under Milkwood." Smith and Thomas were close until his sudden death in 1953. In the later 1950s, Liz worked several years at a commercial art company designing and drawing, but her profession changed again when she became Arthur Miller's assistant. Liz accompanied Arthur and his then wife Marilyn Monroe to Nevada for the screening of "The Misfits." Liz remained his assistant after Marilyn's death. It was through Arthur Miller that Liz learned of the Montana Wilderness Society, so in 1962 she came to Montana because the Montana Wilderness Society was sponsoring a horse-pack trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. For years, Liz returned to the Bob Marshall Wilderness on horse-pack trips. They inspired an immense passion for the Montana wilderness that led her to a position as the publications director of The University of Montana School of Forestry in Missoula, Montana. After five years in that position, Smith met and married her fourth husband, Eldon Smith, an environmentalist and wildlife biologist for Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Elizabeth Smith also worked as director of the Montana Wilderness Association. In 1980 she was offered a position as writer/editor at the Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission in Portland, Oregon. She retired in 1986 and returned to Missoula, Montana where she remained involved in environmental issues. Smith died in 2001.