Dr. Mary Parker Smith, 99, of Paducah passed away Thursday, November 3, 2022 at Baptist Health in Paducah.
Mary was born on February 18, 1923 in Gray, Kentucky to Dr. and Mrs. James E. Parker. She grew up in Corbin, Kentucky. Her interest in medicine began when she was a teenager when her father took her to his home. She is a rural patient. She attended Union College in Barberville, Kentucky and followed in her father’s footsteps in July 1945 when she graduated from the University of Louisville Medical School at the age of 22. During her medical school, she married William Hampton Smith, a fellow student she met in the university’s science lab. After her graduation, she worked with her mother and her children through the Louisville Department of Public Health.
