Growing up and learning in Grinnell, IA

From left to right: Paul James Renfrow (younger brother), Edith Virginia Renfrow, Mercedes Carol Mays (cousin), and in front, Virginia Mays (cousin). c. 1925.

cropped -- Edith Renfrow as a Toddler -- 1915 copy.pdf

Mrs. Renfrow Smith as a toddler, 1915.

Born in 1914, Edith Renfrow Smith grew up in one of the oldest African American families in the town of Grinnell. Her parents – Eva Pearl Craig (1875-1962) and Lee Augustus Renfrow (1872-1945) – had settled in Grinnell at the turn of the 20^th century.

Mrs. Renfrow Smith is the fifth of six Renfrow children, and like her siblings, she attended the local public schools. As a teenager, she was an avid athlete. She participated in calisthenics and was a member of both the basketball and volleyball teams at Grinnell High School.

Edith Renfrow as a member of the Grinnell High School Girls Volleyball team, 1932.