Judy Smith was born April 4, 1943 and was raised in Barstow, California. She was 15 when her family relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1958. It was a wide, open setting, an ideal location for riding her horse. Smith attended Las Vegas High School, worked for the Las Vegas Sun and earned a scholarship to the University of Nevada Reno. By 1967, she was married and moving back to Las Vegas with her young family. They chose the John S. Park Neighborhood as the place to call home. In 2006, Smith’s home was gutted by a fire and her life was saved by an observant neighbor. She could have relocated at the time, but chose not to move from the area that she has called home for over 40 years.