Smoller was diagnosed with severe pulmonary tuberculosis in 1923. She spent two years at the Cragmor Sanitarium in Colorado Springs to seek treatment, where she met Benjamin Strong, who was also suffering from tuberculosis. Against the advice of doctors, she went back to New York to resume her dancing career, but suffered a hemorrhage during rehearsal for the Broadway play "Howdy, King". She committed suicide on December 9, 1926, in her room at the Hotel Shelton, New York City, four days before the play's opening, writing letters addressed to her mother, Mrs Rose Smoller, and to Benjamin Strong. The cause of death was suicide by drinking liquid shoe polish which contained potassium cyanide. A New York newspaper speculated that another factor contributing to her suicide was her "failure to get work in the films .. Miss Smoller had a screen test at the Famous Players studio .. and .. was informed she "would be considered".
