Michael McCarty

Liz Smith is a Texan who grew up worshiping the likes of Tom Mix and his horse Tony as well as Astaire and Rogers at the movies. She wrote her first column after listening to Walter Winchell on the radio and went on to create a gossip pillar at the University of Texas, where she studied journalism.

A champion of literacy and the fight against AIDS, she has raised millions for these causes. She won the Matrix Award for journalism and an Emmy Award for TV reporting at WNBC. Liz has been in Vanity Fair‘s Hall of Fame, endured the Playboy Q&A and answered the Proust questionnaire. She was recently named a “Living Landmark” by the Landmarks Conservancy of New York.