When Johnnie Jewel Smith was born on December 31, 1924, in Tennessee, her father, John Edgar, was 33, and her mother, Sallie, was 35. Her step-brother Jared was 21 and married to Ena (they were living in Chattanooga), her half-brother Charlie (1909) was 15, and her sisters Gladys (1916), Hulda (1918), Estelle (1920) and Ruth (1922) were 8, 6, 4 and 2 years-old, respectively.

She died on December 18, 1925, in Lincoln County, Tennessee, within a year of her birth. All that exists of her short life is her name and birth date written in family documents by her mother, Sallie, her death certificate, and her tombstone.

There are no contemporarily recorded birth certificates for any of the 11 Smith children, likely as they were all born at home (some had birth certificates issued later on in life, to get things like passports, etc.). Johnnie Jewel’s name is found written in 4 places, and in each instance it is spelled differently. Her mother spelled her name “Johnnie Jewel” and “Johnny Jewel” in her writings. It is spelled “Johnnie Jewell” on her death certificate. It is spelled “Jonny Jewel” on her tombstone. Her death certificate notes that she was attended to for 3 days before her death by Dr. Eugene Fletcher Holland, MD, an 1892 graduate of Vanderbilt Medical School. He had grown up and lived almost all of his life in Mulberry, and in an ironically tragic coincidence, had been the father of a child that had also died in infancy.

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Her cause of death is listed to be due to “Operation for blocked bowels.” One can only speculate, but a common causes an intestinal blockage at her age is an “intussusception,” a rare condition where the bowel folds into itself, causing intestinal blockage and death, if not relieved. It isn’t clear whether her death was from the blockage, or a complication of the surgery. Certainly, Dr. Holland, 58 years old at the time of her death, was very experienced by this point in his career, having been in practice for 33 years. But it isn’t clear that he was even the surgeon. And surgery on a sick 11-month-old remains risky to this very day.

Her body was released to Higgins Funeral Home, which still exists in Fayetteville. Unfortunately, a fire in 1986 destroyed all of their old records.

Johnnie Jewel is buried next to her mother and father in Mulberry Cemetery.