Smith was born on December 30, 1946, at Grant Hospital in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago, to Beverly Smith, a jazz singer turned waitress, and Grant Smith, a Honeywell machinist. The family was of part Irish ancest… See more

In 1969, Smith went to Paris with her sister, and started busking and doing performance art. When Smith returned to Manhattan, she lived at the Hotel Chelsea with Mapplethorpe. They frequented Max's Kansas City… See more

Smith was raised a Jehovah's Witness and had a strong religious upbringing and a Biblical education. She says she left organized religion as a teenager because she found it too confining. This experience inspired he… See more