Edith Virginia Renfrow Smith, of Chicago, Illinois, has celebrated her 110th birthday on 14 Jul 2024. She was born on 14 Jul 1914 in Grinnell, Iowa to Lee Renfrow and Eva Craig, the children of slaves. She was the first African American woman to graduate from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, with a degree in psychology and a minor in economics, in 1937. Following her graduation, she moved to Chicago in search and work and soon met her husband Henry Thomas Smith (1915-2013), who she married on 25 May 1940. Her eldest daughter Virginia Edith Smith died in 1998, while her younger daughter Alice still lives near her mother and visits her apartment in Brookdale Senior Living. She is one of the oldest living notable people, as her educational achievements have gained her notability for years in the media. In October 2021, Grinnell College dedicated an art gallery in her name; "Edith Renfrow Smith ’37 Student Art Gallery", and in 2022 they renamed a residence (Renfrow Hall) and library (Edith Renfrow Smith Black Women’s Library) after her. She is the subject of a biography "No One is Better Than You: Edith Renfrow Smith and the Power of a Mother’s Words" by Monique McLay Shore. 

 

 

from Jul 2023

 

from Jul 2024

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