Longtime NYRA employee Shirley Day Smith dies at 99

ELMONT, N.Y. – Shirley Day Smith, who spent more than 60 years as an administrative assistant in the press office at the New York Racing Association and its predecessors, died Thursday after a brief illness. She was 99.

Smith began working in racing before women were allowed to work at the track, and worked out of offices in Manhattan, according to a friend, the freelance writer Paula Rodenas.

Before retiring from NYRA in the mid-1990s, Smith worked for several different publicity directors, including Pat O’Brien, Pat Lynch, Sam Kanchuger, Chris Scherf, Steve Schwartz, and Glen Mathes.

“Shirley was loved by everybody,” Mathes said. “And I’d venture to say she helped more people than anyone in the history of horse racing. That was certainly true when it came to members of the media. She was a great worker and an even better person.”

Smith, who lived in Lido Beach, N.Y., was the recipient of the National Turf Writers Association’s Joe Palmer Award for meritorious service to racing. The New York Press Photographers Association presented her with a “Good Gal Award” in 1987 for cooperation with and assistance to the media.

A funeral is planned for Monday at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Point Lookout, N.Y., with burial afterward at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.