The Renfrow Story

Yesterday the remarkable Edith Renfrow Smith turned 111 years old. One hundred and eleven. ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN!!!! She was joined in celebrating by three members of Team Renfrow – Tamara Beaubouef, Valeriya Woodard, and Feven Getachew. They had a special luncheon with Edith and her daughter Alice and other close friends. Team Renfrow delivered…

Iowa Public Radio and the Our Iowa Magazine The last few weeks have seen some great coverage of the Renfrow book to a wider Iowa audience via two of my favorite outlets. The October/November 2024 edition of Our Iowa, a very popular magazine around the state, included a nice write up by Megan Veldboom, another…

It’s been a week since the dedication of Renfrow Hall and I am still reliving all of the wonderful memories created by this event: greeting this special lady and her daughter at the airport as they arrived via private jet; a two mile parade filled with well wishers of all ages; beautiful wheat paste murals…

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,…

How do you celebrate a milestone that only one in a million (possibly more) will ever reach? For the delightful Edith Renfrow Smith, you do it by going to afternoon tea at a favorite spot on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. On July 14, 2024, Edith and her daughter, Alice, got dressed up in their finest for…

For the last several years Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times has done a piece of Edith for her birthday. The first was when she was 107. Each has been a treat, but I think this piece for 110 tops the rest for charm and joy. He does a wonderful job capturing her spunk and…

As of a few days ago the Renfrow book can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and pretty much any bookstore in the country. If you’ve followed this journey for long, you know I am committed to supporting distribution through small bookstores and have been working with the Pioneer Bookstore in Grinnell for book…

Today I was delighted to find an envelope in my mailbox from my dear, sweet friend. Her handwriting is a bit more shaky than the first note I received back in 2015, and there are a few more dropped or jumbled words. But she is just shy of 109 years and 11 months old, so…

I have be working on giving myself permission to work at a more normal pace. I confess I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t managed to get the book into more bookstores yet, that I don’t have the ebook version ready, that I haven’t made a read-along version…. so many things that I’ve thought I…

The last couple of weeks have been about changing gears from getting books sent to libraries to sharing the story of writing the book. I’ve done author talks at Davis School, the Mayflower Home retirement community, and the library. I’ll be doing much the same on April 10th at the Community Education Council’s “Bucket Course”…