Betty Smith

Betty Smith, née Elisabeth Wehner (December 15, 1896 – January 17, 1972), was an American author. 2Biography Smith was born Elisabeth Wehner on December 15, 1896, in Brooklyn, New York, to first-generation German-Americans. At the time of her birth the family was living at 207 Ewen Street (now Manhattan Avenue). At age four they were living at 227 Stagg Street, and would move several times to various tenements on Montrose Avenue and Hopkins Street before settling in a tenement at the top floor of 702 Grand Street that served as the basis for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. As a child she made great use of the then-new public library on nearby Leonard Street. Smith attended PS 49 through fourth grade before transferring to PS 18 and then finally PS 23 in Greenpoint. While some sources report she attended Girls' High School, her biographer reports that she was obliged to quit school by her mother to help support the family, as her alcoholic father worked only sporadically. Smith became an active member of a social service center on Jackson street called the School Settlement Association, and it was likely there rather than her apartment that the tree grew which gave name to her book. It was there that she met her husband, the coach of her debate team, George H. E. Smith, a fellow German-American whose family name had been changed during WWI from Schmidt. These experiences served as the framework to her first novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943