This oral history interview with Kathryn Smith was conducted by Jim Strassmaier on October 10, 1981. The interview was conducted as part of a family history for Smith's son, Ward Smith, a resident of Portland, Oregon.

In this interview, Smith discusses her early life in the Manhattan borough of New York City in the early 20th century, describes how the city has changed since her childhood, and talks about her high school and college education. She speaks about acting on stage in New York, and shares her reasons for leaving theater. She shares her experiences working at the Pepsi Cola Canteen in Washington, D.C., during World War II, and talks about serving soldiers. She talks about the career of her husband, Robert Jerome Smith, as a newspaper owner, a speechwriter for Congressman Joseph W. Martin, Jr., and in radio. She then talks about her social life in Pelham, New York, in the later 1920s and early 1930s, and about the lives of her parents. She discusses her children, their families, and their careers, and shares her reasons for preferring the beaches of New England to those in the Pacific Northwest. She speaks further about her childhood, and shares her genealogy research.