Anne Smith
{"TemplateVersion": "aa-profile-v2-linea-keys", "WpPageId": 540451, "ParentWpPageId": 538638, "Slug": "anne-smith", "Title": "Anne Smith", "Url": "https://chrisdeasy.com/logos/lengua/peoples/cultures/praying/pghaa/aa-history/anne-smith/", "Kicker": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS PROFILE", "DisplayTitle": "Anne Smith", "Deck": "Dr. Bob's wife, remembered in A.A. history for the spiritual practices, hospitality, and early recovery support associated with the Smith household in Akron.", "BackLink": {"Text": "Back to A.A. History", "Url": "https://chrisdeasy.com/logos/lengua/peoples/cultures/praying/pghaa/aa-history/"}, "ContextCards": [{"Label": "Period", "Title": "Modern History", "DateText": "1800 CE – 1945 CE", "Url": "https://chrisdeasy.com/logos/linea/time/history/historical-events/human-history/modern-history/"}, {"Label": "Era", "Title": "Long 19th Century", "DateText": "1870 CE – 1914 CE", "Url": "https://chrisdeasy.com/logos/linea/time/history/historical-events/human-history/modern-history/long-19th-century/"}, {"Label": "Born", "Title": "1881 CE", "DateText": "", "Url": ""}, {"Label": "Died", "Title": "1949 CE", "DateText": "", "Url": ""}], "GeoCards": [{"Label": "Terra Avita", "Key": "Linea:TerraAvita:North America"}, {"Label": "Terra Avita Region", "Key": "Linea:TerraAvitaRegion:Interior Plains & Lowlands"}, {"Label": "Modern Country", "Key": "Linea:Country:USA"}, {"Label": "State", "Key": "Linea:State:IL"}], "School": null, "Birthplace": {"Title": "Oak Park, Illinois, United States"}, "Images": [{"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 1, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/dr-bob-smith-01-dr-bob-smith-and-anne-smith-outside-their-home.jpg", "Alt": "Dr. Bob Smith and Anne Smith outside their home.", "Caption": "Robert Holbrook ‘Dr. Bob’ Smith and Anne Robinson Ripley Smith stand together outdoors in a photograph made no later than June 1, 1949. Beginning in 1935, their Akron household served as a meeting place, refuge, and testing ground for practices that helped shape early Alcoholics Anonymous. This image matters because it records the cofounder beside the partner whose hospitality, spiritual commitment, and sustained work with alcoholics and their families helped support the fellowship’s first years.", "Description": "Hard outdoor sunlight falls across Dr. Bob’s pale double-breasted jacket, white shirt, narrow patterned tie, and round dark spectacles, leaving deep shadows beneath his brow and along his lean face. Anne stands close behind his right shoulder, looking forward through round glasses with a faint, composed smile. Her short hair is arranged in neat waves, and the visible portion of her light garment carries a delicate scattered pattern. Horizontal clapboards, a sharply descending eave, pale masonry at the right edge, and dense foliage compress the domestic setting behind them. The tightly cropped reproduction, cool blue-gray cast, softened focus, coarse grain, clipped highlights, and abrupt trimming of both figures give the photograph the immediate, weathered character of a repeatedly copied family snapshot.", "WpMediaId": 540757, "SourcePageUrl": "https://aamo.info/aabbsg/aahistoryphotos/page31.html", "SourceImageUrl": "https://aamo.info/aabbsg/images/Banne11.jpg", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/dr-bob-smith-01-dr-bob-smith-and-anne-smith-outside-their-home.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 2, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/dr-bob-smith-07-dr-bob-smith-and-anne-smith-together.jpg", "Alt": "Dr. Bob Smith and Anne Smith together.", "Caption": "Dr. Robert Holbrook ‘Dr. Bob’ Smith and Anne Robinson Ripley Smith stand arm-in-arm outdoors sometime before Anne’s death in 1949. From 1935 onward, their Akron household welcomed alcoholics and their families and provided one of the essential domestic settings in which early Alcoholics Anonymous took shape. Later reproduced with an identifying nameplate, this photograph matters because it preserves Bob and Anne as partners in the hospitality, spiritual practice, and sustained personal service that supported A.A.’s formative Akron fellowship.", "Description": "Bob stands at left in a pale double-breasted suit with broad peaked lapels, a white shirt, narrow patterned tie, and round dark spectacles. His long hands meet low before him, one wrist marked by a watch, while hard sunlight sharpens his high forehead, angular face, and grave expression. Anne stands closely against his left arm, gripping it just above the elbow with her right hand. She wears dark-rimmed glasses, a necklace, and a light short-sleeved dress patterned with scattered floral or abstract marks and gathered at the waist. Her waved hair is arranged close to her head, and the intense sunlight narrows her eyes as a restrained smile lifts her face. Behind them, horizontal clapboards, upper-story windows, a deep porch eave, a masonry pier, and dark foliage compress the residential setting into steep bands of light and shadow. A modern translucent ribbon crosses the lower photograph beneath a large gray-white oval bearing the scripted words ‘Dr. Bob & Anne Smith.’ Coarse grain, softened focus, clipped highlights, dense shadows, and the intrusive identification graphic reveal a repeatedly reproduced historical photograph adapted for later digital presentation.", "WpMediaId": 540779, "SourcePageUrl": "https://www.soberspeak.com/post/alcoholics-anonymous-history-who-founded-aa-how-did-it-begin", "SourceImageUrl": "https://static.wixstatic.com/media/78daf3_0b02ec865ad34b3abb2c2090ba950932~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_576%2Ch_826%2Cal_c%2Cq_90/78daf3_0b02ec865ad34b3abb2c2090ba950932~mv2.jpg", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/dr-bob-smith-07-dr-bob-smith-and-anne-smith-together.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 3, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/bill-wilson-11-bill-wilson-dr-bob-smith-and-anne-smith-in-california.jpg", "Alt": "Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, and Anne Smith in California.", "Caption": "Robert Holbrook ‘Dr. Bob’ Smith, at left, Anne Smith near the center, and William Griffith ‘Bill W.’ Wilson, at right, gather with five companions in California during the early 1940s. As Alcoholics Anonymous grew from its Akron and New York beginnings into a national fellowship, personal visits and relationships connected emerging groups across the country. This relaxed outdoor photograph gives that expansion a human scale, preserving three members of A.A.’s founding circle within the fellowship that accompanied its westward growth.", "Description": "Eight adults form a loose, uneven cluster on a grassy lawn beneath dense trees. Dr. Bob stands at far left in a dark jacket over a light shirt, his upright figure silhouetted against a broad tree trunk. Below him, a man sits in profile with his knees drawn upward and his hands gathered around a small object. Anne Smith occupies the brightest area of the composition in a pale dress, her head lowered toward the cigarette held between her fingers. A man in a light suit leans forward behind her, while a dark-haired woman beside him smiles broadly from the rear of the group. Bill Wilson bends toward the center in a dark suit and patterned tie, one hand planted on his knee. In front of him, a woman in a light blouse sits sideways with one trousered leg extending diagonally across the foreground; the woman at far right turns inward from the picture’s edge with her hands near her lap. Bent knees, overlapping bodies, and divergent gazes create the impression of conversation momentarily interrupted for a snapshot. Heavy foliage closes the background in shadow. Pale garments and foreheads flare under strong light while dark coats merge into near-black shapes; soft focus, coarse grain, a cool blue-green cast, and tight cropping give the surviving reproduction a fleeting, timeworn character.", "WpMediaId": 540764, "SourcePageUrl": "https://aamo.info/aabbsg/aahistoryphotos/page39.html", "SourceImageUrl": "https://aamo.info/aabbsg/images/Calif09.jpg", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/bill-wilson-11-bill-wilson-dr-bob-smith-and-anne-smith-in-california.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 4, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/anne-smith-01-anne-smith-in-portrait.jpg", "Alt": "Anne Smith in portrait.", "Caption": "Anne Robinson Ripley Smith, a central figure in Alcoholics Anonymous’s formative Akron fellowship. From the Smith family home on Ardmore Avenue, Anne welcomed alcoholics and their families, participated in the spiritual life surrounding the earliest meetings, and provided sustained personal support during the movement’s emergence. This portrait preserves the warm, composed presence of the woman Bill Wilson memorialized as ‘the mother of our first group.’", "Description": "Anne Smith smiles with relaxed warmth, her eyes visible behind dark-rimmed glasses and her dark hair swept upward in a carefully arranged style. Small earrings and a delicate necklace of linked floral or leaflike forms complement her pale V-neck garment and dark outer layer. Soft, slightly faded color and a mottled gray-blue studio background give the portrait a gentle, intimate atmosphere. Fine grain, muted contrast, and slight softness indicate that the surviving image has passed through reproduction, but Anne’s broad smile, poised expression, distinctive jewelry, and carefully presented appearance remain clearly legible.", "WpMediaId": 540790, "SourcePageUrl": "https://storiesofrecovery.org/history2.htm", "SourceImageUrl": "https://storiesofrecovery.org/downloads/historic/AnneSmith-C.jpg", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/anne-smith-01-anne-smith-in-portrait.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 5, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/anne-smith-02-anne-smith-portrait-over-the-smith-home.jpg", "Alt": "Anne Smith portrait over the Smith home.", "Caption": "Anne Robinson Ripley Smith with 855 Ardmore Avenue, the Akron home that became a formative center of Alcoholics Anonymous. Used as the featured image for a 2015 biographical essay about Anne, this composite links her portrait to the household where she and Dr. Bob welcomed alcoholics and their families and where the emerging fellowship's practices were discussed, tested, and sustained. The juxtaposition restores Anne to the physical setting of her contribution: the home she helped make a meeting place, refuge, and community of recovery.", "Description": "A black-and-white composite unites Anne Smith's portrait with an exterior view of her Akron home. The house rises behind a deep porch whose broad shingled gable rests on substantial brick piers; shadowed windows and the recessed entrance are partly screened by dense foundation plantings, while twin dormers and bare branches break the upper roofline. In the upper-right corner, a crisp white-bordered inset isolates Anne against a pale studio background. Her dark hair is arranged in high, sculpted waves, and small earrings and a fine necklace accompany her dark garment. She looks slightly to her left with a steady, thoughtful expression. The house photograph is soft and grainy, while the inset preserves firmer facial detail. A narrow white margin and double dark border bind the two photographs into a single composition, visually joining the woman with the historically significant place shaped by her care and work.", "WpMediaId": 540800, "SourcePageUrl": "https://aaagnostica.org/anne-smith/", "SourceImageUrl": "https://aaagnostica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Anne-Ripley-Smith.jpg", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/anne-smith-02-anne-smith-portrait-over-the-smith-home.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 6, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/anne-smith-03-anne-robinson-ripley-as-a-young-child.jpg", "Alt": "Anne Robinson Ripley as a young child.", "Caption": "Anne Robinson Ripley in 1882, pictured as a small child with an open parasol. Made decades before her marriage to Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith and the beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, this early portrait preserves the childhood of the Oak Park girl who would become an indispensable presence in the Smith household’s work with alcoholics and their families.", "Description": "Anne rests both forearms upon a dark wooden rail while gathering the slender parasol handle between her hands. An elaborately ruffled bonnet encircles her dark hair and intent expression. Her long, pale coat or dress is richly bordered with plush trim at the collar, cuffs, front opening, and hem, creating strong bands of texture against the softly mottled studio backdrop. The parasol opens diagonally above her shoulder, countering the rigid horizontal rail and giving the carefully arranged portrait a playful theatricality. Muted tones, softened detail, and visible fading lend the surviving image a delicate, timeworn surface without obscuring its most distinctive features.", "WpMediaId": 540805, "SourcePageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=38", "SourceImageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=38", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/anne-smith-03-anne-robinson-ripley-as-a-young-child.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 7, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/anne-smith-04-anne-robinson-ripley-in-1898-portrait.jpg", "Alt": "Anne Robinson Ripley in 1898 portrait.", "Caption": "Anne Robinson Ripley in 1898, the year she attended Wellesley College on scholarship and met Robert Holbrook Smith at a dance at St. Johnsbury Academy. Their ensuing seventeen-year courtship preceded their 1915 marriage and the Akron household in which Anne became a vital source of care for alcoholics and their families. This portrait matters as a rare image of Anne at the threshold of that shared history, decades before Alcoholics Anonymous began.", "Description": "Anne stands against a softly mottled studio backdrop with an erect posture and a composed, searching expression. A broad, sculptural hat rises dramatically above her brow, its dark crown surrounded by an asymmetrical brim and a pale flourish of ribbon or plumage. Her high-necked dress is densely ornamented: a decorated yoke is crossed by several looped cords, horizontal bands structure the fitted bodice and sleeves, and broad bell cuffs flare above the long skirt. Her hands meet low before her, anchoring the vertical figure beneath the hat’s expansive silhouette. Softened detail, muted monochrome tones, and a lightly stippled surface give the surviving portrait a delicate period character while leaving the elaborate costume and Anne’s self-possessed presence clearly legible.", "WpMediaId": 540806, "SourcePageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=39", "SourceImageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=39", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/anne-smith-04-anne-robinson-ripley-in-1898-portrait.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 8, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/anne-smith-05-anne-robinson-ripley-with-her-brother.jpg", "Alt": "Anne Robinson Ripley with her brother.", "Caption": "Anne Robinson Ripley with one of her brothers in 1898, during the period when she attended Wellesley College on scholarship. That same year she met Robert Holbrook Smith while visiting a college friend in St. Johnsbury, beginning the long courtship that preceded their 1915 marriage. This informal family photograph is significant because it preserves Anne within her own family circle before the Smith household and its later place in Alcoholics Anonymous history.", "Description": "Anne and her brother stand close together outdoors, absorbed in a small object held between them. He bends toward her in a dark suit and patterned tie, holding a light-colored flower or small object near his lapel as he studies what she has in her hands. Anne smiles beneath a broad, flat-crowned hat trimmed with a dark band. Her high-necked dress has a fitted, vertically pleated bodice, full sleeves gathered above narrow cuffs, and a long skirt; a small dark handbag hangs at her side. A white porch post divides the pair, while clapboard siding, a shaded doorway or window, and dense foliage place them beside a house. Their shared attention and relaxed proximity give the scene an intimate family character markedly different from Anne’s formal studio portraits. The surviving photograph is softly focused and lightly mottled, but the figures’ expressions, clothing, and interaction remain legible.", "WpMediaId": 540807, "SourcePageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=39", "SourceImageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=39", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/anne-smith-05-anne-robinson-ripley-with-her-brother.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 9, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/anne-smith-06-anne-robinson-ripley-in-profile-in-1915.jpg", "Alt": "Anne Robinson Ripley in profile in 1915.", "Caption": "Anne Robinson Ripley in her wedding dress on January 25, 1915, the day she married Robert Holbrook Smith after a seventeen-year courtship. Following their marriage at her mother’s home in Oak Park, Illinois, the couple established their household at 855 Ardmore Avenue in Akron, later a formative setting in Alcoholics Anonymous history. This bridal portrait records Anne at the beginning of the marriage and domestic partnership through which her hospitality, spiritual practice, and care would eventually support the emerging Akron fellowship.", "Description": "Anne stands in serene profile beside a luminous patterned window or translucent curtain, her gaze raised slightly into the light. Her dark hair is smoothed close to her head and gathered low at the back, leaving the line of her forehead, nose, and chin sharply defined against the pale opening. Her wedding dress has a broad rounded neckline, short sleeves, and richly textured ornament across the bodice; vertical gathers descend toward an elaborate waist formed by layered horizontal bands. Bright, diffused light fills the left side of the composition while the space behind her recedes into deep shadow, creating a quiet, contemplative contrast around her figure. The surviving monochrome reproduction is softly focused and visibly grainy, but Anne’s profile, carefully arranged hair, upright bearing, and the intricate surface of her wedding dress remain distinct.", "WpMediaId": 540808, "SourcePageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=40", "SourceImageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=40", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/anne-smith-06-anne-robinson-ripley-in-profile-in-1915.jpg"}, {"ImageMasterId": 0, "ImageOrdinal": 10, "ImageUrl": "https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/anne-smith-07-anne-smith-holding-robert-smitty-smith.jpg", "Alt": "Anne Smith holding Robert Smitty Smith.", "Caption": "Anne Robinson Ripley Smith holds her infant son, Robert Ripley ‘Smitty’ Smith II, born June 5, 1918. Made early in Smitty’s childhood and long before the founding events of Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, the portrait preserves the Smith family’s private life before their household became inseparable from A.A.’s beginnings. Anne’s steady support of the smiling child anticipates the maternal care and hospitality she later extended to people seeking recovery and to their families.", "Description": "Anne steadies Smitty upright against her body, one hand firm around his side while her bent arm supports his weight from behind. Her head inclines toward him in concentrated attention; dark hair, parted near the center and drawn back close to her head, frames a serious, protective expression. She wears a loose, pale garment with an open neckline and sleeves gathered above the elbows. Smitty, dressed in a long, softly textured gown and close-fitting bonnet, beams outward with rounded cheeks, an open smile, and both arms extending energetically from his body. His bright face and clothing appear almost luminous against the black background, while a pale diagonal strip behind Anne interrupts the surrounding darkness. Strong tonal contrast, compressed detail, visible grain, and softened edges give the surviving monochrome reproduction the intimate character of a cherished family photograph.", "WpMediaId": 540809, "SourcePageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=41", "SourceImageUrl": "https://saddlebackclub.com/files/A-Timeline-History-of-Alcoholics-Anonymous-Pictures.pdf#page=41", "LocalPath": "work/aa_final_uploads/anne-smith-07-anne-smith-holding-robert-smitty-smith.jpg"}], "Video": null, "HasVideo": false, "IdentityFields": [{"Label": "Full Name", "Value": "Anne Robinson Ripley Smith"}, {"Label": "Native Name", "Value": "Anne Robinson Ripley Smith"}, {"Label": "Other Names", "Value": "Anne Smith; Anne Ripley; Mrs. Dr. Bob"}, {"Label": "Sex", "Value": "Female"}, {"Label": "Nationality", "Value": "American"}, {"Label": "Religion", "Value": "Not established in the reviewed source material"}, {"Label": "Mother", "Value": "Joyce Pierce Ripley"}, {"Label": "Father", "Value": "Joseph Ripley"}], "MajorWorks": [], "Relations": [], "Contributions": [], "OtherVoices": [], "ComponentSequence": ["Page Shell", "Top Action Back Link", "Profile Kicker", "Profile Title", "Profile Deck", "Visual Identity Section", "Context Card Row", "Period Card", "Era Card", "Born Card", "Died Card", "Geo Card Row", "Region Card", "Terra Avita Card", "Terra Avita Region Card", "Modern Country Card", "Contribution/Birthplace Row", "Contribution Card", "Birthplace Card", "Image Gallery Section", "Image Modal", "Main Content Container", "Identity Fields Section"], "SectionTitles": ["Identity Fields"], "Counts": {"ImageFigures": 10, "VideoIframes": 0, "MajorWorkCards": 0, "RelationCards": 0, "RelationChips": 0, "ContributionCards": 0}, "Contribution": {"Label": "Contribution", "Title": "Sustaining the first Akron fellowship", "Url": "", "Deck": "Smith’s home, hospitality, and spiritual support gave the first Akron members a place to meet, recover, and learn how to help one another.", "Ring": "#8A5A2E", "TerraRing": "#8A5A2E"}, "LineaKeys": {"PeriodName": "Modern History", "EraName": "Long 19th Century", "TerraAvitaName": "North America", "TerraAvitaRegionName": "Interior Plains & Lowlands", "CountryIso3": "USA", "Region": null, "StateCode": "IL"}}