Local philanthropist and journalist Lessie Smithgall dies at 110

Lessie Bailey Smithgall, a longtime Gainesville philanthropist and journalist, died Friday, June 25 at the age of 110.

Smithgall, a native of East Point, was a 1933 graduate of The University of Georgia and was thought to be the oldest-living graduate of the university at the time of her death. Smithgall also was credited with bring the Peabody Awards to the Athens campus. 

Smithgall and her husband Charles founded WGGA radio - which is now part of Jacobs Media - in 1941. They also owned and operated the local newspaper The Times for nearly four decades.

The Smithgall name is prominent in North Georgia with the Smithgall Arts Center in Gainesville and Smithgall Woods in White County both named after the couple..

Funeral services for Lessie Bailey Smithgall are pending. Little & Davenport Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. 

Lessie Smithgall (left) is shown here at a Phi Beta Kappa event at Brenau University in March 2019. She is picture with former Brenau President Ed Schrader. (Photo: AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

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