Edith Renfrow Smith

In 2022, Grinnell College announced their new Civic Engagement Quad residential hall building would be named Renfrow Hall in honor of Edith Renfrow Smith.

The Chicago Sun-Times did a two-part feature on Edith when she turned 107 in July, 2021. They did another piece on her when she turned 108.

The stories of the Renfrow family members are explored in the book "Grinnell Stories: African Americans of Early Grinnell" by Dan Kaiser, published in 2020 by the Grinnell Historical Museum.

In 2019, at the age of 104, Edith received an honorary degree from Grinnell College. Earlier that year the Edith Renfrow Smith Black Women's Library was opened in the Grinnell College Black Cultural Center. In 2006, she had been honored by the school in the naming of the Smith Gallery in the Joe Rosenfield Campus Center.

In 2009, at the age of 94, Edith was admitted to the Chicago Senior Citizen Hall of Fame and was the 2009 Luminary Award Recipient for her many years of community involvement. Because of her remarkable vitality and memory, at the age of 99, Edith was selected to be a part of a "superager" study being conducted by Northwestern University. To qualify as a "superager," a person must be "age 80 or older with memory performance equal to or even better than healthy people in their 50s and 60s. To qualify, an individual must pass a rigorous set of memory tests, ones so tough that less than 10 percent of people who believe they could be a SuperAger actually qualify." In 2018, Edith appeared on the Today Show as a part of their series on superagers.

A student during the depression, she worked a number of campus jobs and lived and ate her meals at home to save money. Despite the living arrangement, she was able to participate in the campus community. In a 2007 article in the Grinnell Magazine, she is quoted as saying "That was a wonderful experience. I was just part of the group, and I enjoyed all the group activities that we had at Grinnell." She attended dances and dinners along with the other female students. She also played sports, including basketball and field hockey.

After college, Edith moved to Chicago in search of work. There she worked at the YWCA and later the University of Chicago. In Chicago she met Henry T. Smith and on May 25, 1940 the couple was married in the Renfrow home in Grinnell. They had two children, Virginia and Alice. She earned her teaching license and taught in the Chicago school system for 21 years. After retirement in 1976, she started to volunteer regularly at Goodwill and the Art Institute of Chicago, something she continued into her nineties.

The story of Eva's mother, Eliza Jane, is told in a 1937 article in the NAACP publication The Crisis, entitled "Up from Slavery," written at the time of Edith's graduation from Grinnell College by Professor Milton Wittler. Edith tells the story of her grandmother, Eliza Jane, and the French man who fell in love with her when she was his slave. Edith is quoted as saying, "[he] made her mistress of his house, treating her with honor and affection. When children came he accepted them as his own and gave them every advantage, even planning for their complete education by a clause in his will." She tells the story of her grandparents sending their children north at the time their father grew ill, making arrangements to pay for their lodging and schooling. When he urged his wife to go with them, she refused to leave.

Education was a priority in the Renfrow family, and all the children attended college and later had careers. Edith, like most of the other Renfrow children, completed her public school education in Grinnell. She was the only one to stay in town and attend Grinnell College. She graduated in 1937 with a major in psychology and a minor in economics. She was the first African American woman to graduate from Grinnell College.

The youngest, Paul Renfrow (1916-1974), served in the US Army during World War II and was part of the D-Day invasion, reaching the rank of Master Sergeant before his discharge. He attended optician school and practiced in Washington, D.C.

Edith Renfrow Smith (born July 14, 1914) is an American woman who was the first African American woman to graduate from Grinnell College, in Grinnell, Iowa. The granddaughter of slaves, Edith at age 99 was designated a "superager" in a study by Northwestern University for her remarkable memory and longevity. At the age of 104, she was given an honorary degree from Grinnell College. There are also two spaces on the campus named in her honor. As of June 2021, Edith is still living in Chicago.

Born on July 14, 1914, Edith Renfrow was the fifth of six children of Eva Craig and Lee Augustus Renfrow. The Renfrows were one of the few African American families in the community of Grinnell, a small rural town in central Iowa. Both Eva Craig and Lee Renfrow's parents had been slaves and were born into slavery. Lee's father, Perry Renfrow, was born into slavery in North Carolina. His mother, Elia (sometimes Alice) Anderson, was born in Gambia and brought to the Americas as a slave.

Evanel Renfrow (1908-1994) received a Bachelors and Master's degree in nutrition from the University of Iowa. She became a professor at Savannah State University.

Rudolph Renfrow (1907-1972) graduated as valedictorian of his class at Hampton and was a part of the New Negro Alliance in Washington, D.C. in the 1930s.

Alice Renfrow (1906-1997) attended Hampton University and went on to a career at the Library of Congress.

Eldest sibling Helen Renfrow 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. She is also among those listed on the Grinnell High School Alumni Hall of Fame.