FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The late Stella Boyle Smith, who died at the age of 100 in 1994, was well known for her love of music and philanthropy. The Little Rock philanthropist and founder of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra would have been pleased to know that the Stella Boyle Smith Trust has pledged $500,000 to establish the Stella Boyle Smith Music Fund at the University of Arkansas.

The fund will support and enhance the department of music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. To express appreciation, the University will name the concert hall in the UA Fine Arts Building the Stella Boyle Smith Recital Hall.

The Stella Boyle Smith Music Fund will function as a quasi-endowment to support the recently established World Center for Research in Ancient Asian and Mid-Eastern Music and the UA opera program directed by Distinguished Professor Sarah Caldwell, as well as other programs within the department of music.

W. P. Hamilton, an attorney in Little Rock, and one of the three trustees for the Stella Boyle Smith Trust, said, "Stella was an unbelievable person. She studied voice in college and loved music and musical performances as well as higher education, so this gift was a perfect fit for the trust." Hamilton was a 1948 graduate of the UA School of Law.

Michael R. Mayton, an attorney with Rieves and Mayton of Little Rock, and another of the trustees, said, "We know she would be thrilled at the opportunity to support Sarah Caldwell and her work at the University. The trust feels that Ms. Caldwell will attract top opera and music students to the University. It also wanted to support Northwest Arkansas and the state’s flagship university." Mayton was a 1973 graduate of the UA Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration and a 1976 graduate of the UA School of Law.

The other trustee for the Stella Boyle Smith Trust is Regions Bank of Little Rock.

Stephen Gates, chair of the UA department of music, said, "We are grateful to the Stella Boyle Smith Trust. Thanks to the foresight of Mrs. Smith — who gave so much to the support of music in the state of Arkansas — the learning and research opportunities we can offer students and faculty at the University of Arkansas will be greatly enriched."

UA Chancellor John White said, "With the addition of Sarah Caldwell to the faculty of our department of music and the establishment of the World Center for Research in Ancient Asian and Mid-Eastern Music, this generous gift contributes significantly to our excellent music department being widely acknowledged as a world-class program."

Smith donated more than $2.5 million in her lifetime to organizations in the music and medical fields. Throughout Arkansas she was recognized as a woman of leadership who gave her time and money to help others. The trust has donated approximately $3 million since her death.

She was born in Farmington, Mo., into a large, musically inclined family, which moved to Arkansas when she was two. She began singing at the age of three and graduated from high school at 14. In 1922, she moved to Little Rock with her first husband, Dandridge Perry Compton, who died in 1935. Her second husband, George Smith, held various business interests and extensive farms in Woodruff and Arkansas counties, which allowed them to engage in philanthropy. Mr. Smith died in 1946.

In 1923, Smith’s love for music inspired her to start The Musical Group in her living room at 102 Ridgeway Drive in Little Rock, where she lived until she died. The group became the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in 1966. Her initial objective was to establish the symphony as an educational tool for children, and, in 1968, she helped establish the Youth Orchestra. In 1972, the symphony board of directors named her an honorary life member. Smith established a trust fund for the symphony’s permanent endowment in 1985. A loyal friend of music and the symphony, she attended nearly every performance and most rehearsals.

Smith was also a pianist. In 1988, she gave UALR a grand piano as well as an endowed trust of $500,000. UALR renamed its concert hall the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall as a tribute to her. That year the university also gave her an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Interest from the trust provides scholarships each year for music students studying string instruments, piano or voice.

Smith enabled many students around the state to attend college through the more than 200 scholarships that she financed.

Other organizations that have benefited from her generosity include St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Baptist Health, the Arkansas Society to Prevent Blindness, Ballet Arkansas, DeWitt City Hospital, the Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute at UAMS, the Malvern Boys Club, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, American Lung Association of Arkansas, Arkansas Museum of Discovery, Joseph Peifer Camp, Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, Arkansas Territorial Restoration, Arkansas Arts Center, Old State House and Hendrix College.