Love and Bloody Feet

As Ray Bradbury said, "Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down." Andrew Lowery Smith graduated from high school in 1950 and joined the US Navy. After he was discharged from the Navy, he started his studies in architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received a B.S. and a B.Arch. in 1960. While he was in college, he served as the pastor of a small rural church just north of Atlanta, Georgia. His four years as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dunwoody, Georgia, were in many ways successful. He led the congregation to make important and far-reaching decisions. Contrary to the expectations of those days, he did not feel a call to the professional ministry and began his career in architecture in 1961. In the ensuing sixty years, he designed many buildings in over twenty states. He was married to Mary Jo Mynatt for sixty-six years. They had three children. Now there are three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Subsequent to his wife's death, he married Era Tayor Weeks. They had four bonus years before she died in 2025. Andrew lives in Collierville, Tennessee. He has, for over sixty-five years, written poems and reflections on love and marriage.