One of the many mysteries surrounding the long, illustrious and unorthodox career of Drue Smith in Tennessee journalism and politics was her ability to conceal her birth date: “I’m terrible with years. I don’t keep ’em.” She was, in fact, born in Chattanooga sometime around the time of World War I.
Her Chattanooga Times obituary in 2001 noted “she dressed in feathers, tiaras and brilliant colors and was frequently draped in strings of costume jewelry, sequins, beads and even flashing lights at Christmas time.”
Former Vice President Al Gore Jr., noted, “She was the hardest working reporter, who got more out of her skills than anyone I ever covered the news with as a reporter, or anyone who covered me, or my father before me, as an elected official. She had a distinctive voice that sounded to me like a cross between Scarlett O’Hara and a mule skinner.”
She showed an early interest in journalism as a student at Girls Preparatory School and University of Chattanooga. Before most women could enter the industry, she began writing a column for the Chattanooga Free Press, “Bird’s Eye View” by Jennie Wren. A society column for The Chattanooga Times, “The Party Line by Drue Smith” followed and led to radio and television talk shows.
She went on the air at Chattanooga’s second radio station, WAPO (founded in 1936 and now WGOW). Here, she gave Congressman Estes Kefauver the coonskin cap he successfully used in his Senate race in 1948 against Sen. Kenneth McKellar and the Crump political machine. When WDEF-TV became Chattanooga’s first television station in 1954, she began covering local events with “Drue’s Party Line.”