Celebrating Black History Month with a Beautiful People profile: Dr. Betty Jo Smith, unparalled in Strength of Spirit!

"That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built."

Luke 6:48


And so it is with Dr. Betty Jo Smith of Menlo Park, Calif., who has withstood the floods of life like a champion and is still standing tall and committed to the Lord in all that she does.


Betty's faith is not the type that one acquires merely through normal daily living. Faith like that comes from weathering storms that rush towards us at unexpected hours.

For Betty, the storms she battled came because of her brilliance, her unapologetic commitment to her race and her commitment to her Truth!

She's paid a price, but I'm sure Dr. Betty Jo Smith would be the first to tell you that if she were to travel the same road again, she would be just as uncompromising in doing what is true, right and honorable to her Soul.

The battles started when she joined the staff of a major Ivy League university hospital staff as a surgeon. She was the first black female to do so in the early 1970s, and therein arose all the battles she's had to fight and continued to fight for many years following.


It's not my story to tell about the incidents that caused Betty to dig deeper into her faith in God and commitment to Truth. Betty has told that story in her book, "First Knife." It's available through amazon.com and other places where books are sold.


What I'm going to share with you, though, is the strength of Spirit of this beautiful woman, Dr. Betty Jo Smith, who also is my friend.




Sharing the insights of this "beautiful spirit," seems especially fitting as we celebrate Black History month. For whenever I think of Dr. Betty Jo Smith, somehow, my thoughts wander back many, many years...indeed...to the strong black women of yesterday: women like Harriet Tubman, who escaped from slavery, then led more than 70 slaves through the Underground Railroad to freedom; Sojourner Truth, who was born a slave but became an abolitionist and women's rights activist, and Rosa Parks, who at age 42 in 1955, refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger...and all black women who remained unbowed in their Spirit, despite what life's circumstances threw their way! Betty's speech pattern, too, with its cadence, is reminiscent of another well-known African-American figure of recent times: Poet Maya Angelou.



Betty Jo Smith was born and reared in Florida, attending Grade, Junior and High School in Dade City. When she won a Ford Foundation Early Entrant scholarship in her junior year of High School, she began matriculation at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., for what would have been her senior year.


The University of Chicago, an Ivy League college, accepted Betty when she applied for admission in her sophomore year. Betty decided to stay put and had a choice of other medical colleges but stayed on in Nashville to attend Meharry Medical School, across the street from Fisk.







Upon graduating from Medical School, then Dr. Betty Jo Smith competed internships at Presbyterian Medical Center in San Francisco and two years of general surgery residency at Mt. Zion Hospital, also in San Francisco. She then went on to Homer G. Phillips Hospital to serve three more years as a General Surgery Resident. She became board certified in 1972 as a general surgeon, joining Stanford University Medical Center on the general surgery staff and where she
stayed for 11 years.

That's her career.


Throughout all this medical training and all these residencies, one thing remained intact and continued to rise within her: her commitment and connection to God.

Matthew 6:24: "No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he would hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

Betty always knew what would come first in her life. She truly is one of those rare individuals who can live and breathe God in every act they undertake.


"God is my all in all, the source of my very being, my strength and protection, the Love of my life," she says.


She says, "I have sought God at all times and in all places 'like as the hart desireth the waterbrook.' I have visualized Him in the splendiferous breakthrough of the sun through an ominously black sky.


"I have seen Him in the robins that carpeted my backyard at twilight, and viewed in awe, the magnificence of the morning glory and meditated and prayed without ceasing."




Betty became accustomed to praying without ceasing when, like most black women or men who sought to rise to the top of their professions in the late 1970s and 1980s, roadblocks and obstacles of all sizes were strewn in their paths.

Instead of shrinking like a violet when the challenges came, Betty says, "I applied this philosophy to all my involvement by loving and thriving on challenges and tests of all kinds.

"Some challenges, however, are motivated by the cruelty and ruthlessness of people, and attack the very core of one's being. I literally and figuratively, fall onto my knees then and affirm: 'Father, I stretch my hands to thee; No other help I know. If thou withdraw thyself from me, Lord, whither shall I go?"

Betty is one of those people for whom quoting Scripture is second-nature to their very being.


This commitment is certainly fitting for a woman who serves as an ordained elder in the A.M.E. Zion Church in East Palo Alto, California. She was introduced to the A.M.E. Church during her early childhood and has never stopped affiliating with this denomination.

In addition to her mother, two other strong spiritual figures played an instrumental role in Betty's continuing commitment to God. "The influence of Mrs. Duska Irving, who taught all children in the community Bible class once a week, was tremendous. Miss Arether Burroughs, who faithfully prepared us for special church programs, was of equal benefit."


With such an upbringing, Betty says that there never was a time that she was not aware of God in her life. "It appears that I have always been aware that God was in my life," she says.

Although still licensed to practice medicine in the state of California, Betty's career has slowly receded to the background of her life, as more and more, her commitment to God has moved to the forefront.

"God is ever present in my life," she says. "He does not merely show up from time to time. He is sustaining me in all of the activities of my life, leading me and giving me direction.

"As I pray and meditate each day, He reveals so many wonderful things to me and gives me insight into His will for my life."


The mother of two sons and a daughter, Betty believes her purpose for being on earth "is to glorify God and to witness His love, life and light.


"At this point in our lives, my family and I continue to enjoy sharing the holidays. We take comfort in the close bond that unites us."

Few people who have risen to Betty's professional heights would ever stand as humbly and respectfully as Betty does when you're in her presence.


You do not see first the doctor or the surgeon, but a woman of God with absolute respect for your Beingness.

"I plan to fulfill my goals by a constant development and enrichment of myself through the acquisition of knowledge, increased wisdom and awareness of God."


She says that her passion has been "the aspiration to identify my limited corporeal self with the absolute Self within me."

Dr. Betty Jo Smith certainly is on her way there. In the nine or so years I've known Betty, she's always struck me as a woman who was always so much ahead of her time and "place" in the world.

Traditionally in history Black Women have juggled many roles... childbearer, keeper of the house and the wise one. They bore their pain with dignity and remained unbowed. Today, we see women like Dr. Betty Jo Smith, also carrying on that tradition but mostly at the upper echelon of their chosen career fields. Although challenges remain, we cannot help but feel the pride and joy of their accomplishments!

The Spirit of a woman like Dr. Betty Jo Smith cannot be captured in this snapshot. Indeed, she says:

"My philosophy towards life is embodied in the knowledge that man's life on this earth is but a drop in the bucket in comparison to the time that has preceded him and that will come after him.


"It is therefore incumbent for him to make his life's moment in time meaningful and leave his footprints on the sands of time by living up to his greatest potential."

Based on the path she's already traveled, we know that Dr. Betty Jo Smith already has done that with her professional accomplishments and spiritual commitment.

What a wonderful legacy to leave in the sands of time, Betty, my friend: a woman who is a "ruler of her Spirit, captain of her Soul!"

Namaste',
Che'