Rita G. Smith thinks the Collin County Community College District is one of the county’s greatest assets. Many in Collin County feel the same way about Rita Smith.

A lifelong resident of Wylie, Mrs. Smith holds the record for the longest business ownership in that city — 45 years as the owner of the Wylie Insurance Agency. During those years, she was the first woman to serve on the North Texas Municipal Water Board, the First State Bank board of directors, the St. Anthony Catholic Church building committee and the Collin County jury panel. She co-founded the Wylie Book Club and helped organize the original Wylie Public Library. In 1984, she and her husband, C. Truett Smith, donated the funds for a new library, which now bears their names.

Although she retired in 1983, Mrs. Smith maintained the pace that earned her the nickname “Energizer Bunny.” When her husband passed away in 1992, she temporarily stepped into his role as owner and publisher of the Wylie News.

She has tutored and mentored in a local elementary school, volunteered with Meals on Wheels and created a scholarship program at Wylie High School. Ursuline Academy, from which Mrs. Smith graduated in 1935, recognized her with the Distinguished Alumna Award in 2003. The next elementary school to be built in Wylie will be called Rita G. Smith Elementary.

Lovingly revered as the matriarch of Wylie, Mrs. Smith has been actively involved in all facets of the community’s growth for more than 60 years, and is a sought-after source of information and insight on her hometown.

As far as Mrs. Smith is concerned, her gifts are simply a reflection of her love of children and her gratitude to a community that she says has been good to her.