Mary Katharine Smith Reynolds Johnston was born on this day in 1880, in Mt. Airy, to Zachary and Mary Susan Jackson Smith.
She attended the State Normal and Industrial College in Greensboro, then transferred to Sullins College in Bristol, Tennessee. She earned a Master’s degree in English literature.
Katharine’s father, Zachary, and Richard J. Reynolds (R. J.) were cousins, so R. J. knew Katharine when she was a child.
R. J. hired Katharine to be a stenographer in the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. R. J. and Katharine married in 1905 in Mt. Airy. They traveled to New York, Liverpool, London, Italy, and other foreign places on their honeymoon, spending several months abroad.
R. J. and Katharine lived in the 600 block of West Fifth Street. They had four children, and lived in the Fifth Street house until they moved to their country estate in 1917.
Katharine was the force and the visionary behind the establishment of Reynolda house and estate. She envisioned a working/model farm where she could grow vegetables, plant orchards and vineyards, raise cattle and other animals, and experiment with modern farming methods and machinery.
A book that examines the process of designing Reynolda and provides even more insight into the life of Katharine, is “A World of Her Own Making; Katharine Smith Reynolds and the Landscape of Reynolda,” by Catherine Howett.
R. J. passed away in 1918, shortly after the family moved to Reynolda. Katharine’s health also was not good, but she kept going with all of her projects.
Katharine was involved in many civic and community organizations, including the Red Cross, YWCA, and the Junior League. She also decided to build a new high school and auditorium in memory of her husband.
Katharine also remarried, to the school master at Reynolda, John Edward Johnston. They had a daughter who was stillborn, and a son who was born in 1924. Katharine was in New York for the birth of her son, and died of a blood clot just days after her son was born.
The city felt her death keenly, for she had such a part in making the city a better place.
To learn more about Katharine and R. J., read “Katharine and R. J. Reynolds; Partners of Fortune in the Making of the New South,” by Michele Gillespie.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
