Be the Change That You Want to See

It hasn’t been an easy road for Jennifer Williams Smith. Now she opens up about her husband’s untimely death, her daughter’s illness, and why she loves serving the City of Jasper.

Words by Terrell Manasco | Images by Blakeney Clouse

On a cold, icy February morning in 2006, a State Trooper walked through her door. Jennifer’s stomach sank as she heard the words no wife wants to hear – her husband was gone. Lee Smith had been on the way to his new job with Fontaine Trailer in Haleyville when another vehicle slammed into his, ending his life. In an instant, Jennifer’s life and her children’s lives changed forever.

A 1990 Walker High graduate, Jennifer earned a communications degree at Auburn University, and her original plan was to leave Walker County permanently. “Going into Auburn, I spent the summer in Spain and was going into international sales,” Jennifer says. “I was not coming back to Alabama.” 

While at Auburn, Jennifer became engaged to Lee Smith. They were married in 1996, a year after she graduated, and the couple welcomed their first child, Sawyer, to their growing family a year later.

After moving back to Jasper, Jennifer coached the swim team at the Memorial Park Pool and served as Aquatics Director for the City of Jasper, where she coordinated fundraising and planning for the new Memorial Park Natatorium.

“Getting more involved in state park and recreation, I found out we had one of the highest disability rates in the state but few recreational opportunities,” Jennifer says. “In response, we formed the Aquanauts Special Olympics Swim Team, started Jasper’s Dream Team Baseball, Soccer, and Flag Football teams, and built the A.P.E.X. (Accessible Playground Extreme Experience) Playground at Memorial Park.” 

Then Jennifer faced a triad of personal losses that left her reeling. “We had just moved into our house on Ninth Avenue,” she says. “My dad passed away in July 2005. Seven months after that, Lee was killed in a car accident, and seven months later, my mom died of cancer.”

An avid runner, Lee had also coached youth sports and even purchased shoes and toys for needy children. The desire to honor Lee’s memory became the genesis of Lee’s Jingle Bell Run, an annual event which provides toys for less fortunate children and dance-fitness opportunities for uniquely-abled people in Jasper through the organization dreamFIT.

But the trials weren’t over. Jennifer and her family faced another hurdle that tested their resolve. In 2010, Lee’s and Jennifer’s daughter, Brylee, was diagnosed with Juvenile Dermatomyositis (JDM), an autoimmune disease with no known cause or cure. Brylee was hospitalized for a week and was homebound for months. “It attacked her entire body, and she worked with physical and occupational therapists for years,” Jennifer says. “It was horrible. She had arthritis in over 42 joints.”

Now 20, Brylee in remission but says the disease will affect her the rest of her life. “I can’t move as well as most 20-year-olds,” she says. “The sun and stress are triggers for it, so I have to be careful.”

Brylee hasn’t let JDM get her down. She has worked at Lavish Coffee Bar since Day One. As a student at Bevill State Community College, she plans to go into communications with a concentration in PR marketing. She is President of Circle K Club, is active in SGA, and has served on the WACF Samuel Lee Smith Advised Fund Board since she turned 16. The fund helps the children of Walker County live their lives to the fullest—just as Lee did.

She is also a founding member of NEXUS, which was formed with the support of the Walker Area Community Foundation to equip, educate, and empower the next generation of leaders in our community. Brylee says she and her college-age peers in NEXUS see great potential in Jasper and Walker County.

Jennifer’s heart for her community led her to a new undertaking just a few years ago. When District Four Jasper City Councilman Lee Swann opted not to run for his council seat in 2012, Jennifer decided to run and was elected. She was the only woman in a field of six candidates and credits one particular person with paving the way for her and for other women. “Sandi Sudduth was the first female council member in Jasper,” Jennifer says. “She gave me the confidence to run, and I want to continue her legacy and inspire other women to step into the arena.”

Her experience with the City was a plus, but Jennifer admits there was more to learn. “Working for the City, I thought I knew what to expect,” she says. “I'd worked on the other side of the budget. I’d been to the council meetings and seen the inner workings. I was thinking, ‘I'm going to get this done and that done’—you learn quickly there are policies and laws...some things take time.” 

Part of that learning has come at the hands of the Alabama League of Municipalities where Jennifer is now an Advanced Certified Municipal Official. She also chairs the Human Development Committee and serves on the State and Federal Legislation Committee.

It’s difficult to believe the young woman who was “not coming back to Alabama” is now in her third term on the Jasper City Council, or that she owns and manages a marketing and social media management business called Just Face It Alabama. But Jennifer did come back and has spent the last 25 years trying to make a difference.

“One of my hopes going into office was to see our downtown grow,” she says. “I wanted our children to be proud of where they're from and to want to return home to live, work, and play... and we are seeing that.”

Her daughter agrees. “My mom has instilled in me, ‘Be the change that you want to see,’” Brylee says. “We see much good here and so much growth and we want to continue to be a part of that.”

No doubt they will. 78