Fannie Smith Washington

Fannie Smith Washington (1858 – May 4, 1884) was an American educator, and the first wife of Booker T. Washington. Before her premature death in 1884, Fannie Washington aided her husband in the early development of the Tuskegee Institute. Early life Born sometime in 1858, Fannie Virginia Norton Smith (sometimes spelled "Fanny") grew up in what is now Malden, Kanawha County, West Virginia. Her father was Samuel Smith, said to be part Shawnee, and her mother was Celia (or Cecelia) Smith. Malden being the same town where Booker T. Washington lived from the age of nine to when he was 16, the pair were likely acquainted from an early age. Education