Edith Renfrow Smith, a resident of Chicago, Illinois, USA, passed away on 2 January, at the age of 111 years, 172 days, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. She was the first African American woman to graduate from Grinnell College, in Grinnell, Iowa.
Renfrow Smith was born in Grinnell, Iowa, on 14 July 1914. She was a second-generation Iowan who grew up in one of the oldest African American families in Grinnell, Iowa. She had five siblings.
The Renfrow family valued education highly, with each child supporting the others’ schooling. Despite financial hardship during the Great Depression, she delayed college to gain office skills, which helped her secure campus jobs and pay tuition while living at home. She enrolled at Grinnell College in 1933 as its only African American student and, in 1937, became the first Black woman to graduate from the college, earning a major in psychology and a minor in economics and history.
After college, she moved to Chicago and started working at a YWCA branch dedicated to serving Black girls and women. In 1954, she began a 22-year career as a sixth-grade teacher. When she retired in 1976, she pursued her passion for giving back to the community by volunteering with organizations like Goodwill and the Art Institute of Chicago. She continued her volunteer work for over 40 years.
In 1940, she married Henry Smith, and the couple had two daughters.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of Edith Renfrow Smith during this difficult time.
