The information below has been compiled from a variety of sources. If the reader has access to information that can be documented and that will correct or add to this woman’s biographical information, please contact the Nevada Women’s History Project.
Born: August 1, 1923, Sacramento, California
Died: December 31, 1989, Sausalito, California
Maiden Name: Barbara Edna Bernhard
Married: William Hubert Smithwick, 1943 – before 1958
Children: Michael and Daniel
Primary City/County of residence/work: Reno, Washoe County, and some California cities
Major fields of work: Acting, singing, broadcasting Other role identities: Dental nurse, mother, grandmother
Talented Reno actor excelled in theater, TV commercials
Local and national broadcast persona Barbara Smithwick had her first taste of stardom at Reno High School. When her parents brought her here from Northern California in her early teens, she attended St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic grade school through 8th grade, and went on to Reno High School, where she became known for her acting skills.
Barbara Edna Bernhard was born on August 1, 1923, to Fred and Hazel Johnson Bernard, in Sacramento, California. She had two sisters, Phyllis Bernhard Thistle and Myrna Bernhard Shafer.
In 1940, she starred in the school’s productions of “Stage Door” and “Phipps,” and even took a shortened touring version of those productions to the local Mizpah Rebecca Lodge.
Journalism was also among her high school interests, as she was listed as attending a high school journalists’ convention at the University of Nevada, Reno. She excelled academically as well, finishing her course work six months before her classmates.
In 1942, she went to San Francisco to study dental nursing and subsequently got a job with a Bay Area dentist. In her spare time, she sang with an orchestra at the Hotel Del Monte. She soon came back to Reno, however, and worked as a nurse there, too. She met a UNR student and football player named Hugh Smithwick, who joined the U.S Army upon graduation. He was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, so she traveled there to marry him in November of 1943. They had their first child Michael there, before her husband was shipped off to be in the occupying forces in Japan in 1945.
Five years later, she was back in Reno and found her way to the Reno Little Theater, where she became well known for her acting and singing skills. She was in such productions as “Light Up the Sky,” and “Bachelor Haven,” where she got consistently good reviews. When a Hollywood movie called “Reunion in Reno,” about a child wanting to divorce her parents, was filming locally in 1951, she got a small part in it, tossing a wedding ring into the Truckee River.
Barbara and Hugh divorced prior to 1958, and by 1960, she’d moved to Los Angeles with her two sons, Michael and Daniel, and was working as an announcer in nationally broadcast television and radio shows and commercials. Her mother Hazel had moved back to
L.A. and died there in 1968.
After almost 20 years of broadcast work in Los Angeles, she returned to Reno in 1978 and decided to open and manage a furrier, known as Pell Tempio, in the MGM Grand Hotel. She was amazed at the amount of money people were willing to spend on luxury items like furs, even in tough economic times, and gave several examples in a March 1981 article in the Reno Evening Gazette.
In 1981, she became a grandmother when her son Daniel had a son named Sean Michael.
In 1983, she attended a reunion of many of Reno’s broadcast pioneers, including Bob Carroll, Betty Stoddard, and Don Thompson. She was recognized at the event for being one of the first in the city to produce live commercials.
She enjoyed cooking, too, and submitted a recipe to the Gazette’s annual Holiday Cookbook for “Breast of Chicken Tarragon,” which was a finalist in the newspaper’s cooking contest.
She later made her way back to California, where she suffered a stroke in 1988. She died from complications of it on December 31, 1989, in Sausalito. Rollan Melton, Reno Gazette-Journal columnist, marked her passing by noting her talents in many productions at the Reno Little Theater and in local and national television and radio broadcasts and commercials.
Researched by Patti Bernard, written by Kitty Falcone, 2025. Posted December 11, 2025.
Sources of Information:
- Ancestry.com. U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. [Barbara Smithwick]
- Ancestry.com. “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: Reno High School; Year: 1939. [B Bernhard]
- Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. [Barbara Edna Bernhard]
- Ancestry.com. Washington, U.S., Marriage Records, 1854-2013 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. [Hugh Smithwick to Lois M Fitzgibbons, 1958]
- Ancestry.com. Year: 1930; Census Place: Chico, Butte, California; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0008; FHL microfilm: 2339847. [Barbaray Bernhard]
- Ancestry.com. Year: 1940; Census Place: Reno, Washoe, Nevada; Roll: m-t0627-02281; Enumeration District: 16-22. [Barbara E Bernhard]
- Ancestry.com. National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Reno, Washoe, Nevada; Roll: 2301; Page: 34; Enumeration District: 16-34. [Barbara E Smithwick]
- “Barbara Bernhard Returns to Reno.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 11 Aug 1942, p.5.
- Cobb, Ty. “Early TV’s fun and funnies.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 5 Oct 1983, p.53. sec: Neighbors, p.1.
- “Completes Course.”, Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 3 Nov 1941, p.6.
- Melton, Rollan. “Death in Bay area takes TV pioneer.” Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, Nevada), 14 Jan 1990, p.21. Sec: Style, p.1. [photo]
- “Finalists. Main Dish. Breast of Chicken Tarragon” Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, Nevada), 16 Nov 1983, p.198. Sec: Holiday Cookbook, p.26.
- “From Backstage: The gal doing the commercials …” Reno Evening Gazette, (Reno Nevada), 19 Feb 1960, p.3. Sec: Entertainment in the Reno Area. Art Long’s Nite Notes
- … at Random.
- “Goes to Coast.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 9 Sept 1941, p.2. “Hazel Bernhard.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 17 Dec 1968, p.6. “Holiday Visitors.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 21 Jan 1960, p.5. “Hugh Smithwick.” Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, Nevada), 12 Nov 1990, p.12.
- Melton, Rollan. “Home Again.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 29 Oct 1978, p.28.
- “Little Theater is Looking for Parrot to Complete Its Cast for ‘Light Up the Sky.’” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 11 May 1950, p.2.
- “Local Movie Talent.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 30 Sept 1951, p.6. [photo]
- Macias, Sandra. “Want to buy a Rolls?” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 23 March 1981, p.48. SEC: Nevada Looks Ahead, p.12A.
- “Miss Bernhard Betrothed to H. Smithwick.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 20 Oct 1943, p.8. [photo]
- “Moss Hart’s Dialogue Plus Top Reno Cast Make Little Theater Production a No. 1.”
- Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada),24 May 1950, p.3.
- “Original Comedy Pleases Little Theater Audience.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 1 Feb 1951, p.13.
- “Parrot Found to Play Role. Light Up the Sky will Open Monday.” Reno Evening Gazette
- (Reno, Nevada), 20 May 1950, p.3.
- “Reno Girl Bride of Army Man.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 13 Nov 1943, p.8.
- “Reno Girl Wed in the South.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 14 Nov 1943, p.7.
- “Reno Resident Dies Suddenly.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 5 May 1954,
- p.13. [Frederick Bernhard.]
- “’Reunion in Reno’ to Have Premiere Here This Week.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 30 Sept 1951, p.6.
- “Senior, Junior School Classes Promoted.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 17 Jan 1942, p14.
- “’Stage Door’ is Reno Play.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 10 May 1940, p.2. “Vocalist.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 28 April 1942, p.5. [photo]