Faye was born in Kerens, Texas, where she graduated from high school there in 1940. She was living in Palacios and working at a dress shop (earning seven dollars a week) when she met Jack Smith on a blind date. In fact, the couple was on a date when they heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Faye traveled to San Diego with a friend, where she learned metalworking at a school, and then went to work. She operated a six-foot power shear at Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, producing B-24 bombers. She cut parts while other women riveted and welded. She worked a five-day week, with Saturday and Sunday off, and made "thirty to forty something" cents an hour, minus union dues. Faye worked in San Diego from spring of 1942 to August of 1943, when they returned home and married in Cotton Valley. She went back to San Diego, but then traveled east again in late 1943 when Jack was shipped to Camp Hulen. Jack, Jr. was born to her in 1944 (their first of three children) while she lived with her in-laws on their farm near Minden. About fifteen years after the war, she went to work at Vivian's, a dress shop in Minden.