Liz Smith (journalist)

Liz Smith
Smith in September 2011
Born	Mary Elizabeth Smith (1923-02-02) February 2, 1923 (age 94) Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Residence	Murray Hill, Manhattan, New York
Other names	The Grand Dame of Dish
Occupation	Journalist
Years active	1950–present
Spouse(s)	George Edward Beeman (divorced)

Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith (born February 2, 1923) is an American gossip columnist. She is known as "The Grand Dame of Dish".

Smith was born in Fort Worth, Texas. She married her college sweetheart, George Edward Beeman, a World War II bombardier, in 1945 but left him to enroll at the University of Texas, where her papers and memorabilia are kept in the Dolph Briscoe Center. They were divorced two years later.

Smith graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in journalism in 1949, where she wrote for The Daily Texan and The Texas Ranger, then moved to New York where she worked as a typist, a proofreader and a reporter before she broke into the media world as a news producer for Mike Wallace at CBS Radio. She spent five years as a news producer for NBC-TV. She also worked for Allen Funt on Candid Camera.

In the late 1950s Smith worked as a ghostwriter for the popular "Cholly Knickerbocker" gossip column that appeared in the Hearst newspapers. After leaving that column in the early 1960s she went to work for Helen Gurley Brown as the entertainment editor for the American version of Cosmopolitan magazine, later working simultaneously as Sports Illustrated's entertainment editor as well.