Edith Renfrow Smith

BIOGRAPHY

Renfrow Smith was born in Grinnell, Iowa, USA, on 14 July 1914, to parents Lee Augustus Renfrow (1872–1945) and Eva Craig (1875–1962). She was a second-generation Iowan who grew up in one of the oldest African American families in Grinnell, Iowa. Her maternal grandparents, George Craig and Eliza Jane Gilbal, were born into slavery and settled in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in the late 1850s. In the 1880s, the entire Craig family moved to Grinnell.

Renfrow Smith had five siblings. The eldest, Helen Lemme (1904–1968), became a celebrated educator and civil rights advocate in Iowa City, Iowa. The Helen Lemme Elementary School in Iowa City is named in her honor, and she is also listed in the Grinnell High School Alumni Hall of Fame. Her older sister, Alice Renfrow (1906–1997), attended Hampton University and pursued a career at the Library of Congress. Her older brother, Rudolph Renfrow (1907–1972), graduated as valedictorian of his class at Hampton and was involved with the New Negro Alliance in Washington, D.C., in the 1930s. Another brother, Evanel Renfrow (1908–1994), earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in nutrition from the University of Iowa and went on to become a professor at Savannah State University. The youngest sibling, Paul Renfrow (1916–1974), served in the US Army during World War II, participating in the D-Day invasion and attaining the rank of Master Sergeant before his discharge. He later attended optician school and practiced in Washington, D.C.

The Renfrow family placed a strong emphasis on education, making it a top priority in their household. They ensured that all their children attended college, and each child worked to support the others’ education. She graduated from Grinnell High School in 1932. During the Great Depression, her family had limited financial resources. To support herself through school and avoid low-paying service jobs, she delayed her college entrance by a semester and took courses in typing and dictation, which enabled her to secure two office jobs on campus. These jobs helped her pay tuition while she continued living at home. She enrolled at Grinnell College in 1933. She was the only African American student on campus throughout her entire undergraduate career. When she graduated in 1937, she became the first Black woman to graduate from the college. She earned 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.

In 2009, she was inducted into the Chicago Senior Citizen Hall of Fame. In 2019, she returned to Grinnell to receive an honorary degree from Grinnell College. In 2022, the college announced that a new residential hall in the Civic Engagement Quad would be named Renfrow Hall in her honor.