Smither, Ethel L.

Ethel Lyle Smither was a well-known twentieth-century author of children's religious books.

Smither received her education at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. She later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she accepted a position with the Methodist Book Concern, a publisher of religious works. Many of her books became standard in Protestant Sunday School classes across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. She also edited several religious magazines, including Elementary Magazine, a magazine for teachers, First Steps in Christian Nurture, a magazine for parents, and Junior Weekly, a magazine for children. Smither was so respected for her work that, by the 1930s, she had lectured in all forty-eight of the states within the continental United States. In 1957, she accepted a position as an education lecturer at the University of Nevada.