The Renfrow Story

In less than three weeks, the inspiring Edith Renfrow Smith will return to the town where she was born for the celebration and dedication of a building named in her honor. She will arrive in a private jet, be greeted with a parade through town, have a party for the entire community in Central Park, and will be surrounded by more than 50 members of her extended family coming from all over the world. She will essentially be treated like Grinnell royalty in every way possible. (Learn more about the scheduled events here.)

Since her 110th birthday on July 14th, she’s done several interviews and has had a steady stream of visitors, including me on July 29th, when we did a mini-110th birthday celebration with these custom made hats.

The Renfrow Hall related celebrations will extend beyond the weekend of events. One of the many exciting things happening is a public art mural project being coordinated by the Grinnell Area Arts Council. The artist, Isaac Campbell, will use historic photos to create murals all around town. His wheat paste process creates a mural that should stay in place for 6-18 months. At least two of the murals will be of Renfrow family members, possibly more. Isaac will do a presentation at Drake Community Library on September 18th at 10am about the project, which includes opportunities for public engagement.

Another fun thing is the college is sponsoring a reading of my book, “No One is Better than You”, at 2pm on the day of the dedication. It will take place at Drake Community Library and they will be giving away 100 signed copies of the book as a part of the celebration.

As I look forward to the coming celebration, I can’t help but reflect on the last several years and all that has happened to bring us to this point. Back in 2015, when I first met Miss Edith when she was 101, I never could have imagined it would come to this – because it is so much better than I ever could have dreamed!

On a side note, my position on the library staff was recently eliminated and I took early retirement. This is largely why I’ve been a bit quiet for the last few weeks as it happened quite suddenly and has been a lot to process. But I can’t imagine ending my career on a higher note than celebrating this woman, her family, and the deeper and richer understanding of Grinnell’s past we now know because of her. I am incredibly proud of the work I did during my 33 years with the library, and the Renfrow story and all it has involved is definitely at the top of that list. So the coming celebration will be a wonderful way to honor that work and mark that end.