Kirby Smart has been a well-known name in the football world for years now, with coaching stints at Valdosta State, Florida State, LSU, the University of Georgia and the Miami Dolphins prior to becoming one of the most respected defensive coordinators in the nation during his time with Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide from 2008 to 2015.
Since 2016, Smart has served as the head coach at Georgia — his alma mater — where he most recently graced the cover of virtually every major sports page in the country following the Bulldogs’ National Championship victory over Alabama earlier this month, the school’s first national title since 1980.
But for those who have been in Plant City long enough, they may remember a different Kirby.
In the 1930’s, Kirby and Hattie Pitts settled in Plant City and opened Kirby’s Kitchen Bakery, drawing customers from all over the central Florida area to purchase birthday cakes, wedding cakes and an assortment of other baked goods — most notably their popular cookies called Chinese Chews. As a team, Kirby Pitts did the baking while Hattie handled the decorating.
The bakery was originally located on Palmer Street, ultimately finding its permanent home on Evers Street, and was later owned and operated by Kirby and Hattie’s daughter Mary “Pete” Maxey until the early 1970’s.
Maxey had two daughters, Sharon and Norma Jean, who recall working in the bakery while growing up before graduating from Plant City High School and attending Samford University in Alabama and Valdosta College in Georgia, respectively.
It was at Samford that Sharon met her husband Sonny Smart, and after years of jokes that she was a birthday present to her grandfather — born on Jan. 31, Kirby Pitts’ birthday — the couple passed the name on to their second son, Kirby Smart.
“They had teased me all of my life that I was my grandfather’s birthday present,” Sharon Maxey Smart said. “So when we had our second son I had just decided that we would name him Kirby, so we named him Kirby Paul Smart.”
While Sharon Maxey Smart remained in Georgia with her family, spending 34 years as an English teacher, her sister Norma Jean Maxey Singleton returned to Plant City, teaching math for 38 years between Tomlin Middle School and Plant City High School.