Marshall Lee Smith

M. Lee Smith, former owner of a publishing company and known in the Nashville area for his television political commentaries for many years, died Tuesday, December 20, 2016 after a long illness with bone marrow and blood cancer. He was 74.

Lee was a loving and caring husband, father, and grandfather. He was a devout Christian, a successful businessman, a political enthusiast, an active golfer, and an avid sports fan.

He is survived by his wife Marilyn Harrison Smith; daughter Connie Smith of Nashville; daughter Lily Culbreath and her husband Jeff and grandson Lewis of Charleston; son Marshall Smith and his wife Tara and grandchildren Cali, Mac, Holt, and Seneca Grace of Brentwood.

Lee was born in Johnson City, Tennessee in 1942, the son of W.J. “Dub” and Ruth Smith. He was predeceased by his brother and best friend Jerry Smith of Nashville.

Lee received undergraduate and law degrees from Vanderbilt University. He served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge William E. Miller. He was a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Howard Baker in Washington and executive assistant to Tennessee Gov. Winfield Dunn.

In 1975, Lee founded M. Lee Smith Publishers, a company he owned and operated for 30 years. The company published newsletters, most of them legal newsletters, and other print and electronic specialized information services and conducted seminars and conferences. The content for many of the company’s products dealt with employment law and was provided by employment law attorneys across the country. These products were sold primarily to human resource professionals at companies.

Lee’s company did its own printing and mailing work and provided these services to other newsletter companies across the nation.

Lee also published a number of services for Tennessee attorneys and The Tennessee Journal, a weekly newsletter on Tennessee government and politics. He wrote a newspaper column carried in about 40 Tennessee newspapers. His weekly television political commentaries aired on WSMV and later on WTVF in Nashville. He was frequently on air with these stations during periods of election coverage.

Lee sold his publishing company in 2005 and retired. He and his wife Marilyn purchased a home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and lived there for several years before returning to Nashville to be with family members.

Lee was an a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church. He was a president of the Nashville Rotary Club and of Kids’ Voting of Tennessee and a board member of the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA Foundation of Middle Tennessee, and the Specialized Information Publishers Association. He was a member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations and the Commission on the Future of the Tennessee Judiciary.

Lee ran road races for many years, often with his son Marshall. He was a long-time chairman of the Franklin Classic Road Race Committee.

He was a dedicated golfer and was a member of the Golf Club of Tennessee. He once wrote a paper about golf great Bobby Jones, recounting Jones’ great gift for friendship, and sent it to his many past and present golf friends at Christmas.

Lee belonged to the National Commodore Club and was an intense supporter of Vanderbilt athletics, especially basketball. He had seats on the front row at Memorial Gym. During one game the basketball bounced off the floor directly to him. The referee wanted to award the ball to the other team. Smith disagreed and rolled the ball back on the court past the official. The referee ordered him out of the gym. His exit drew an ovation from Vanderbilt fans and became the subject of a humorous column in The Tennessean.

Early in his life Lee developed an affection for baseball. One day he was listening on the radio with his cousin to a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. His cousin was for the Giants so Lee started rooting for the Dodgers. Late in that game Bobby Thomson hit the most famous home run in baseball history to defeat the Dodgers and win the pennant for the Giants. The Dodgers lost the game but had a new life long fan in Lee.

Throughout his life Lee was an intensely competitive person in his business, in the political arena for several years, on the golf course, and earlier in high school and youth sports. When he played his first Little League baseball game, a newspaper account said, “The crowd pleaser of the day was Jaycees eight-year-old right fielder Lee Smith. Smith drew three walks in four plate appearances and worked his way around the bases once with good base running.” Lee said that first game at age eight was the high point of his athletic career.

Visitation with the family will be at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 33 Burton Hills Blvd., on Friday, December 23 at noon followed by a memorial service at 2:00.

Honorary pall bearers are Lee’s long time golf friends John Griffin, Frank Wylie, Don Williams, Don Hasty, and Lonnie Stout of Nashville, John Pearson of Tuscaloosa, and Richard Herlehy of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

The family wishes to thank the staff at Alive Hospice for their loving and compassionate care.

The family requests that memorial contributions be made to the charity of your choice