Josephine Wernicke Smith, State Librarian 1945 - 1953

Josephine Wernicke Smith was the first trained librarian to hold the position of State Librarian

Josephine Otta Wernicke Smith was born February 6, 1898* in Appleton, Wisconsin. Her parents were Carl and Marie Wernicke. As a child she moved to Minneapolis and attended Minneapolis public schools. Early in life, she was called Jophona (at least that's what the census worker wrote) and later she went by Phana. As an adult, she was Josephine. She attended Minneapolis West High School where she worked on the yearbook. She then went on to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1917 with the name Phana Wernicke. At some point she met her future husband Richard Keene Smith and married him, probably in 1917 in Arizona, but they also applied for a marriage license in Minnesota in 1916. The marriage licenses list her name as Josephine O. Wernicke.

After her marriage, she travelled the world with her husband who was an active military officer. They lived in China and the Philippines as well as on military bases in Maryland, Washington and Illinois. Their first son, Allen was born in Washington state in 1920 and their twin sons Richard and Carl were born in Illinois in 1923.

Her husband Richard became disabled and was discharged from the Army in 1930. The family moved back to Minneapolis and in with Josephine's parents. Josephine enrolled in the first library science program offered at the University of Minnesota and graduated in 1931. She went to work for the Minneapolis Public Library in the Registration department that year.

In 1935 she transferred to the hospital division of the library and served patrons at the city hospitals. At some point her husband moved to California and in 1941 Josephine moved to Springfield Missouri where she helped establish library service at a military field hospital there. That same year her husband died in San Francisco. In 1944, she moved back to Minneapolis and resumed her job with the public library. 

In 1945, State Librarian Paul Dansingberg died unexpectedly and Josephine was appointed to the position September 10, 1945 by Governor Edward J. Thye. Many news sources describe her as the first woman state librarian, but this is untrue as Louisa Goodwin and Melissa Smith each held the position in the 1860s. She was, however, the first state librarian with library training and experience.

Other deaths and resignations led to a complete turnover of the staff of the library and she needed to hire several new staff members. In her first report as librarian she describes the conditions she found as 'semi-chaotic' and includes a full history of the library as an appendix since there hadn't been any reports filed for 20 years.

During her time as librarian, Josephine Smith was involved with an Attorney General investigation into the practice of the library to return books to a vendor in exchange for future credit. The Attorney General's opinion said the practice was not allowed, but the library had already returned thousands of dollars' worth of books for credit.

As a trained librarian, Smith worked hard to improve the library and make it easier to use. She continuously asked the legislature for money to staff the library and allocate enough money to be able to purchase updates for the materials.

Josephine Smith died at her home on June 2, 1953 of a barbiturate overdose. She was 55 years old.

*There is disagreement about her birth year in multiple sources, however 1898 is listed in her obituary.