There were many composers who in the world of ragtime could be considered one-shots, as they had perhaps only one rag to their name. While most are hardly a blip on the radar, some, like Clarence Wiley, need to be regarded due to some unusual facet of their contribution. In the case of Maurice K. Smith, he was one of the few ragtime or popular music performers on the west coast who had a rag published, and even rarer, his was done in Los Angeles, California. (Note: Maurice K. should not be confused with Maurice H. Smith, an East Coast performer and music arranger of the same period.)

Maurice was the eighth of ten children, and was born in Newport, Ohio to carpenter John T. Smith and his musical wife Sarah Caroline Saddler. Mrs. Smith enjoyed some notoriety as a local musical celebrity in Ohio, and later Kansas. The other children were Laura Winifred (11/17/1866), Charles (10/1869-1879), Mary Elizabeth (3/19/1874), Edward Saddler (4/22/1876), Walter L. (2/12/1878), Franklin V. (3/11/1880), Helen P. (4/27/1882), and Maurice's younger brother and sister Ralph Taylor (4/12/1886) and Vashti V. (10/21/1892). The origin of his two middle names was unclear, but likely refers to two of his parent's close relatives. While at least two of the sons went into facets of the family business, one as a plumber and another as a painter, Maurice's older sister Helen was a music teacher, and was responsible for some of his early training. By the early 1890s the family had settled in Neodesha, Kansas where they were shown in the 1895 state census. It was there that Maurice got some additional musical training in the public schools, and at age 13 got a job playing cornet for a summer circus, something he did for two seasons. Giving up school at 16 he joined a traveling dramatic stock company, and spent the next few years on the road playing for them. He then joined up with a vaudeville troupe as both musical performer and director. Smith married his wife, Illinois native Lillian (Middleton) Smith, in 1903. A source in Lancaster, California, showed a 1913 wedding date, but other data is in conflict with that, including the 1910 enumeration. In that 1910 record the traveling couple was found in Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona, a little town just north of the Mexican border.

By 1912 Maurice started playing in theaters, as well as leading orchestras in theaters as music and movies were forming their necessary union. He settled in Los Angeles for a few years, and it was there that one of his two sole known (or remaining) compositions, That Dawggone Rag, was composed. It was published by the local house of W[alter] A[lbert] Quincke & Company, a publisher known more for the occasional popular song than anything else. They would later have a good relationship with composer Byron Gay. It is likely that Maurice wrote more for the films he accompanied, but such compositions were likely confined to the theaters they were performed in and are now long gone. That Dawggone Rag also found its way onto a U.S. Music Company piano roll in 1914. His Hookworm Rag is mentioned on the title page of That Dawggone Rag, but no further information was found confirming its publication.

Around 1916 the Smiths relocated north to San Francisco, California, where Maurice spent some time studying organ under maestro C. Sharpe Minor (Charles Minor), who had recorded for the Edison company. The couple moved again in late 1917, as Maurice appears on voter records in Sacramento from 1917 throughout most of the 1920s, consistently listed as a musician or a teacher. He got a job playing the organ at the famous T & D Theater at 613-617 K Street, which shows as his employer on his 1918 draft record. In 1920 he was back briefly in San Francisco playing at the prestigious Royal Theater on their beautiful Robert-Morton theater organ that had been installed in 1918. The couple is listed in San Francisco in the January 1920 census in temporary quarters. After that stint he returned to Sacramento in late 1920 to a run with the State Theater on their grand Wurlitzer, while playing special performance with other theaters in town. It is not known how much ragtime he played or knew, but he was among the more notable of the Barbary coast players, even with the confines of a movie theater.

Deciding that playing was not enough, Maurice decided to share his talents and knowledge with others, and in August of 1922 he opened his own music studio to train students in arranging and playing music for cinema and other media. According to History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches published in 1923, he had a Robert-Morton organ at his disposal for teaching, and enjoyed getting out and about in his automobile when not teaching. Lillian was also instrumental in keeping the school going. It was still in operation as of the 1930 census, which lists Maurice as a music teacher in his music school. In the early 1930s the couple moved to nearby Modesto, California, then again in 1934 to Paradise, California, where Maurice is listed as a musician. They are next found back in San Francisco in 1936, living on California Street, and Smith still listed as a musician. After that they retreated east to Placer, California, where Maurice died in the early fall of 1938 from a bout of pneumonia at age 54. Lillian survived him until 1961.

The musicianship displayed in That Dawggone Rag is apparent, and actually echoes some of the ideas that the public has had about silent movies and the characteristic accompaniment that might go with them. The opening in a minor key sounds a little harder than it is, and is followed by a repeated 32 bar B section, something not often used in ragtime before the early 1910s. The trio is a once-through 32 bar section that has variety between the two halves, and the interlude is an early example of a dogfight figure which craftily segues into the B section in the original key. In the few available newspaper clippings, Smith was highly regarded for his musicality, but ultimately his wish was to pass it on to others for their benefit.