Maggie Aldridge Smith was born in Konowa (Seminole County), Oklahoma, on October 19, 1913, the daughter of William Isaac Aldridge and Doriece Chastain Aldridge. Through her mother she was a descendant of two Benton County pioneers, Simon Sager and Jehu Chastain. A devout Christian, she had a conversion experience as a child and received baptism by immersion in Wewoka Creek in Seminole County, and attended a Missionary Baptist church. She graduated from Apache High School in Apache, Caddo County, in 1932. On January 8, 1933, in Chandler (Lincoln County), Oklahoma, she married Melvin Smith, who had two children by a former marriage. They later adopted two more children. They lived in Johnson County, Kansas, where Melvin worked as a railway mail clerk and Maggie worked as a school teacher. Melvin served in the army in Europe during World War II, being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944-January 1945. Maggie attended several colleges, including Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as Kansas City University. Later she took creative writing classes at Northwest Arkansas Community College (Benton County) and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Melvin took a disability retirement in 1961, and the couple moved to Siloam Springs (Benton County), Arkansas.

In Siloam Springs Maggie emerged as a prolific writer, specializing in local history and poetry. She wrote more than ten books, and established the Simon Sager Press. She was a member of the Ozark Writers and Artists Guild, the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas, the National League of Pen Women, and the Siloam Springs Writers, serving in various offices in these organizations. She also worked as a free lance writer for the Arkansas Gazette, Tulsa Daily World, and other newspapers, and also had a newspaper column, “Maggie’s Musings.” She received numerous awards, being named Poet of the Year by the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas in 1980. She also created the Doriece in honor of her mother, a form of short poetry featuring four syllables per line and celebrating the relationship between mother and daughter. She was an active member of the Benton County Historical Society, serving as its president and as editor of the Benton County Pioneer for several years. She was director of the Benton County Bicentennial committee in 1976, and the Benton County and Arkansas Sesquicentennial committee in 1986. She also led the effort to preserve and restore the Simon Sager cabin located on the campus of John Brown University in Siloam Springs.

Religion played an important role in Maggie’s life. In Siloam Springs she taught the women’s adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church, as well as the Sunday morning Bible class at Woodland Manor Nursing Home. She was involved in the Baptist Women’s Missionary Union, serving as director of the Benton County chapter several times. Her religious convictions are born out in much of her poetry. She also was a member of the Arkansas Women’s Christian Temperance Union, serving as its president and editing its newsletter, the Arkansas White Ribboner, in the late 1980s. Melvin Smith died on May 12, 1996. Maggie died in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ten years later, on August 7, 2006.