BANGOR – Mary M. Smith, a longtime political activist and labor leader, died Sunday in Bangor. She was 70.

Smith, a leader in the Democratic Party in the 1970s and 1980s, was a tireless advocate for women in the workplace and adult education among other causes, according to those who knew her.

“She was hardworking, and her commitment to the community was unparalleled,” Gov. John Baldacci said in a statement Monday. “She was a great family friend.”

Baldacci, while a 2nd District congressman, appointed Smith to a committee charged with reviewing applicants and making recommendations to the nation’s military academies.

Smith was also a longtime member of the so-called “coffee club” at the Baldacci family restaurant in Bangor, where local Democrats – and a few Republicans – meet most mornings to discuss politics.

Another regular at the gatherings, state Rep. Patricia Blanchette, D-Bangor, said Monday that Smith was a “lovely lady,” driven to better the lives of society’s least politically powerful members.

“She was a very, very strong believer in the democratic process and that endeared her to all of us,” Blanchette said.

Smith, among her many elected and appointed positions, served as the director of the Maine AFL-CIO’s committee on political education in the late 1970s, during which time she advocated for equal opportunity for women in the workplace and a larger role for women in labor unions.

Outside politics, she held jobs with the FBI and the U.S. Immigration Service.

A graduate of Bangor schools, Smith attended the University of Mane at Orono.

She was a longtime member of the Bangor Adult Education Advisory Board and served on the executive committee of the Maine Association for Public School Adult Education.

She was also a gubernatorial appointee on the Maine Bureau of Consumer Protection during the Brennan administration.

Among her political endeavors, Smith was a local leader in a 1980 movement to draft Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to run for president. He eventually did run, but lost the party’s nomination to sitting President Jimmy Carter.

Smith is survived by three children and three grandchildren.